


Freelance Fugitives

by Quasi_Detective



Category: Sam & Max
Genre: Alternate Universe, Collaboration, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-04-04 17:12:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 24
Words: 49,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4145943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quasi_Detective/pseuds/Quasi_Detective
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Max's psychic powers return, the military takes an interest, and goes to ridiculous lengths to gain full control over the lagomorph. However, Sam is willing to go to further lengths to save his little buddy.<br/>A story written with melodiavalentine from deviantART. Not formatted very well since it's not meant for public reading but I put it up anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Unstable Friendship

"My head hurts, Sam."

Sam sat at his desk, his jaw placed firmly on it. The phone started to ring. He didn't bother to move to grab it; there wasn't much of a need anymore.

"Sam? Sam, don't ignore me."

Sam stayed quiet and still.

"Sam! Hell- _ooooo_?! Answer me!"

The 6-foot-tall dog stood sluggishly and went to the fridge, pulling it open slowly. Not much inside... Nothing edible, at least.

"Dammit, Sam! You're tickin' me off, ya bone-head!"

Sam sighed and looked up at the ceiling. He'd be safe, so long as he hadn't forgotten anything.

" ** _SAAAAAM_**!"

Sam nearly jumped out of his fur when he heard the roar and pounding on the window near him. His 'little buddy' had latched himself to the window frame, and was pounding against the glass with all of his might. His white fur was not-so-soft looking - all mussed up - and the bags under his beady brown eyes only added to the insane glare he gave.

"Open the window, Sam." The lagomorph grinned his typical, over-exaggerated shark-toothed grin.

"I'm afraid I can't, little buddy."

"Aww, come on, why the hell not?! I've been alone out here all night! At least, I think it was all night. I can't remember. Hee hee!"

"Max, I can't let you inside."

The rabbit almost looked hurt. "Why not?"

"I'm going to call the police if you don't get away from this house."

"But this is our house, Sam! _Our_ house! I live with you, don't you remember?"

"Don't make me call _them_ after you again, little buddy..."

Max didn't know what Sam was talking about. Still, he felt compelled to reply with "You do that, they die, Sam. Every last one of 'em - _dead_."  
Max wasn't one to fight against whatever he felt compelled to do.

"Don't you think you've hurt enough people, Max? Just turn yourself in to the police. Maybe, being as psychotic and delusional as you are, you can escape from them after that. But never come back here, do you hear me?"

"Geez, Max - I mean, Sam. When did you become so touchy? So maybe I bit that girl a couple times. She had it coming!"

"' _That girl_ ' was the _Geek_ , Max! You put her in the hospital!"

"So _wha_ ~ _t_? She was _pestering_ me, Sam! You know I hate it when people _pester_ me!"

"But that doesn't give you a reason to hurt them, little buddy."

"Oh shut up already and open this damned window before I strangle you with your crappy banjo!"

"No, Max. Go away!" Sam pointed his gun at the window, startling Max a little.

"You wouldn't shoot me, would ya, Sam? We're best buddies! Hell, we're the Freelance Police!"

"We're not _either_ anymore, Max. Now go. Go away before I'm forced to shoot you and plead self-defense."

Max went uncharacteristically quiet. He had on this sort of frown that Sam had seen only a few times in the long, long time that they'd known each other.

" _Go_!" Sam barked at his old friend.

Max blinked a few times rapidly. He hesitantly let go of the window frame and fell a few feet to the ground below. He swallowed as he sat there, feeling a bit numb.

Sam slowly lowered his gun.  
"I hope I'm doing the right thing..." He mumbled to himself. He felt horrible, but Max had gone too far after their latest case. Both of them ended up getting into a huge mess with the other departments of the police force, as well as the commissioner.  
Sam had managed to get out of the situation with only a banning from doing any freelance police work, but Max was facing charges of manslaughter, and was probably even supposed to be on death row at this time. Of course, with Max having such short-term memory and all, the rabbit had probably escaped and easily forgotten nearly everything that he'd done and had reverted back to what Sam had grown used to calling 'default'.  
Sam put his gun away and was about to go back to his desk and sit down when he suddenly heard a sound he was confused by.

' _Is... Is that...? No, that's impossible. I've never seen Max cry,_ _ **ever**_ _. He'd never cry over something like this._ '

Outside, sitting on the ground, Max tilted his head up and cried. He wasn't sure that he'd ever felt the way he did then, and he was slightly more certain that he'd never cried like this... at least, never in Sam's general radius.  
If Sam were joking, Max knew that this would cause his pal to open the window, let him inside, and maybe snuggle him a little.  
If not, Max was alone. Completely and utterly alone.  
Max leaped back up onto the windowsill.

Sam stared at Max with this look of pity on his face. ' _Wow, he's actually crying... That's a sight._ '

"Sam, what did I _do_?! I don't remember, and frankly, I only care because you seem hurt, and I _hate_ to see you hurt."

Sam looked at the floor. He couldn't just force Max to leave - where would he go? What would that leave Sam with? An empty void in his heart, probably.

Max grinned as Sam opened the window. " _Sa_ ~ _m_!" He sung tearfully and cheerfully as he leaped into the dog's arms and hugged him.

Sam hushed the hyper lagomorph, subconsciously patting his large, fluffy head. "You've gotta stay quiet, alright, little buddy? No one must know that I let you keep staying here, or else we could both get into big trouble."

"I understand, Sam."

"You do?"

"... No. But if pretending to understand lets me stay here with you, then I'll pretend more than I ever have before."

"That's sweet... I'm sorry I made you cry, Max."

"Are we still best buddies?"

Sam hesitated. Max had done horrible things, some using his psychic powers, but all-in-all, it was clear that he had never deliberately tried to hurt Sam himself...  
"... I guess so. Yes, we're still best buddies."

Max's insanely-wide grin spread even wider, and he tightened his grip on his best friend. "Oh, Sam!"

"You worry me sometimes, little buddy."

"I know, Sam."

* * *

Sam was asleep in the top bunk of his and Max's bunk bed. However, he was almost literally sleeping with one eye open. It would be difficult to fully trust Max again, he knew that much.

Max's eyes practically snapped open. He looked around, keeping everything from his nose-down underneath the covers. He'd heard a noise.  
"... S-S-Sam...?"

Sam rolled over onto his other side so he could look down at the rabbit. "Yeah, Max?"

"Did you hear that noise?"

"What noise? All I heard was you call for me."

Max looked away. "Guess it must have been nothing. Either that or the giant mutant cockroaches have dug their way back into the cellar."

"Go back to sleep, little buddy."

"Okay, Sam..." Max tried to fall back asleep, but whenever he was close, that noise would awake him again. It was as if something was deliberately trying to keep him and only him awake, and it was starting to piss him off.  
The hyperkinetic rabbity thing quietly jumped out of the bottom bunk and walked out of the room, trying to follow the sound.

Sam couldn't go back to sleep no matter how hard he tried after being woken up. He let out a sigh as he sat up.  
"Max, tell you what. I'll help you try to find that... noise?" He was surprised to see Max wasn't in bed. He got out of bed and tried to look for him. "Little buddy, where'd you go?" he called out.

Max heard him, but didn't reply. He kept looking around the house quietly, but the noise didn't happen again - it was as if it only happened whenever he was trying to fall asleep.

"There you are, Max! You had me worried you went bonkers again and ran off." Sam said as he laid on hand on his rabbit friend's shoulder.

Max jumped a bit, but then pointed at the front door, his grin returning to his face as he looked at Sam. "Sam, the noise is coming from outside. I think."

"Well then, let's go see what the noise was so we can get some sleep." the dog smiled back and opened the door.

" _No_ , Sam!" Max slammed the door shut and pressed his back against it. "What if it's an alien from Mars? What if it wants to _enslave_ us? _What if it wants us to treat it like a_ _ **proper guest**_?!"

"Then we just do what we usually do, Max."

Max pulled his Luger out of nowhere. "Shoot it in the eyes and eat its insides?"

Sam looked at his friend with a disturbed look. "No, we capture the alien and sell it to scientists. Geez, Max, I swear you're getting more demented."

"Oboy, am I, really?" Max seemed pleased by the thought, which was somewhat typical of him.

"Yeah, but if you still wanna shoot it, you can after we find out what it is."

"You're the best, Sam! Now let's get out there and ruin that thing's day." Max ripped the door open and rushed outside, looking around with his gun out. "Show yourself, you damned dirty ape!"

Sam ran out as well with his gun in his hands, carefully looking around.

"My God, Sam, _look_! I was right! It's a freakishly deformed alien being from another planet!" Max pointed feverishly over to a walking ball of red slime.  
"Hello, Sam and Max." The alien held out one hand to shake with Sam, and another in front of Max to be shook.  
Max simply stared at the hand, as it was in front of his mouth. "..." He seemed to be contemplating on whether or not to bite this 'foreign object'.

"Max, no biting the alien. Shake its hand."

Slowly, Max extended his tongue. "He tastes like jelly, Sam."  
The alien pulled its hand away from Max. "Freelance Police, some other members of my race and I have crash landed on your planet, and we were captured by these odd creatures in helmets. I was the only one who escaped from their barbaric experiments. We need your help."  
"Can I shoot him now, Max? I mean, Sam." Max asked, not at all sympathetic or interested in the alien's plea.

"Wait a minute, Max. What's in it for us if we help you?" Sam asked the alien.

"What is it that you want? We'll give you anything you want if you save us."  
"Anything?" Max asked excitedly.

"Anything, huh?"

"Yes, but we must hurry. Follow me." The alien started sliding away.  
Max suddenly looked like something had angered him as he held his Luger a little tighter, clenching his hands into fists.

Sam looked at his friend. "Max? You okay, little buddy?"

Max feigned a smile, though he still looked noticeably irked. "Yeah, Sam. I'm _fine_. Let's follow the alien and get this over with." As the rabbit started to walk, he placed his finger on the trigger, as if getting ready to shoot.

Sam looked worried for his friend as he followed.

As they walked, Max suddenly leaped in front of the alien and aimed his gun at him. "Hands up, you lying pile of jam!"  
The alien, stunned, stopped walking and held his hands up.  
"On your knees!" Max demanded harshly. "Get down, and don't try anything funny!"

"Max, what are you doing?" Sam asked as he got in front of Max.

Max lowered the gun, not wanting to shoot Sam. "I'm prosecuting him for how he's playing with us like we're fools, Sam." He replied casually.

"How can you tell he's lying, Max?"

Max shrugged. "I guess my latent psychic powers are back again. He thought about how much he was going to get paid if he brought me to a military base so they could use me as a weapon. Right now, he's worrying that he's been called out for his bluffs. He's not really an alien, Sam. He's just some fat guy covered in strawberry jelly."

Sam frowned as he looked at the "alien" and shot a nearby fire hydrant; sending water flying at him.

They watched as nothing happened; the alien simply sputtered.  
Max had a finger on his lips, as if somewhat intrigued. "Huh. Must be some powerful jam."

"Or he could really be an alien and I just soaked him." Sam grumbled.

"Please! Your rabbit friend - he _lies_!"  
"Shut your mouth, tubby, before I have to shut it for you." Max aimed around Sam at the alien.

" _You_ shut it, Max. I've had it with your antics. We're doing this and then you and I are through!"

Max fell silent again. He put on a blank expression as he slowly put his Luger away to wherever he hid his things.

Sam helped the alien up. "Sorry about that. Now where do we have to go?"

"I stole a vehicle, so we should get to that to get to our destination faster. Then we go to where the creatures in helmets took the rest of my crew."

"Alright. Show the way."

The alien started to walk, but Max didn't move. He just stood there staring at the sidewalk, rubbing his right arm a little.

Sam stopped and looked back at Max. "Let's go, Max."

Max looked up at him for a moment, a hurt look in his spaced-apart brown eyes, then he averted his eyes again and slowly walked to Sam's side.

Sam's ears drooped a bit as they walked; now regretting telling Max they were through.


	2. The First Battle

Soon they got to the vehicle, which was just your typical run-of-the-mill car.  
"Sit in the passenger's seat, Sam. We need to discuss a plan." The alien said. "Or _you_ could drive. Your choice. I'm not very good at controlling this strange vehicle."  
Max reached up and opened the back seat door, getting into the car meekly.

"I'll drive." Sam said as he got into the driver's seat.

The alien got into the passenger seat and started telling Sam where to drive.  
Meanwhile, Max stayed quiet. It seemed like the thought of losing Sam was the only thing that could make him stop acting like a lunatic, as he usually did.

Sam followed the alien's directions and drove to the location.

It was a military base, as Max had suggested. As they got closer to it, Max raised his foot and gently nudged open the door to his right - he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and he'd intentionally closed the door improperly.

Sam didn't notice as he kept driving.

Max let himself fall out of the car, quickly pulling his legs back so they wouldn't get run over by the back tires.

Sam saw him just as he fell out. " _Max_?!" he yelled out as he slammed down on the brakes.

Max jumped up onto his large paws/feet and started running away with just a bit of a limp, as he'd hurt his knee whilst rolling out of the car.

Sam jumped out of the car and went after him. "Come back, Max!"

Max tried to keep running, but his knee soon gave out, and he was reduced to crawling.

Sam finally caught up with him and gently picked him up. "Max, why did you do that?"

Max looked miserable, but he refused to speak, and he didn't struggle. He just looked at Sam and blinked.

"Max, come on. Please talk to me."

He shrugged in response to the question he'd been asked.

The dog sighed as he carried the rabbit back to the car and carefully laid him on the backseat. "Just rest in here, okay?"

Max turned onto his side and nodded a little.  
"We have to hurry." The alien said. "We might not have much time to save my crew."

Sam nodded. "Alright, now which building on the base is where they have your crew?"

The alien pointed to one of them. "That one. Unfortunately, we'll need to drive by that guard post to get in. Maybe if you make it seem like you've captured me, they'll let you in, though."

"That plan just might work. Let's do it."

When they drove by with the alien handcuffed, the guards seemed to fall for it and let them through, though they hardly seemed to give the alien a second glance.

Sam didn't show it, but he was starting to think what Max said about the alien was true and this was a trap. But he wanted to know who was behind it and drove into the building.

A soldier gestured for him to stop driving and told him to get out of the car as another one pulled the alien out.

He nodded and slowly got out, making sure his gun was where he could quickly grab it. "Now!" he yelled as he knocked out the guard next to him.

He was easily overpowered, as the alien didn't do anything.  
Two soldiers reached into the car and grabbed Max, restraining him despite the fact that he didn't resist, and started carrying him away.  
"Sam, thank you for not refraining from being a good citizen just because you've been forbidden to do any police work." One of the other soldiers said and held out a hand. "Now, as our decoy offered, we'll give you anything you want, so long as it's practical."

"The only thing I want is my best buddy Max back, you bastards!" Sam yelled at him; growling a bit.

Hearing that, Max's ears perked up a little. He bit the hand of one of the soldiers that held him, making them scream and let him go while he kicked at the other soldier. Nearly all of the other soldiers ran to capture Max.  
"Now, Sam, that's not practical. Just ask the Commissioner - he's the one who told us to catch him." The one soldier responded to Sam, seemingly prepared to fight.

"I don't give a shit _what_ he wants! Max is staying with _me_!" he yelled again and fired his gun at the soldier.

The bullet missed, but the soldier was knocked off balance from surprise.  
Max continued to fight with the crowd of soldiers that was after him, and he managed to find a knife on one of them that he stabbed into their leg, latching his teeth to another and appearing to be having the time of his life and maybe just a bit _too much_ fun.

Sam took advantage of the soldier being off-balance and punched him in the face before slamming his face into the ground.

Luckily, Max was serving as a great distraction for the rest of the soldiers, leaving Sam in power over the one guy he was fighting.  
The soldier that Max had attached himself to slammed the rabbit into the wall, effectively setting him off and making him become frighteningly feral as he bit harder and kicked. He was doing alright, but it was clear that the soldiers were beginning to find a way to exhaust him.

"I'm coming, little buddy!" Sam yelled as he started his assault on the other soldiers to try to get to him.

The soldiers turned against Sam while one started trying to choke the lagomorph out. Another smacked Max over the head with the butt of his gun a couple times until Max fell limp in their grasps.

" ** _MAX_**!" The dog growled and started to pummel the soldiers.

The two soldiers with Max made a break for it, trying to get away. If Max were to wake up, one of the soldiers would receive a bite to the neck due to the way that the rabbity thing was being carried - with his teeth _inches_ from the soldier's throat.

Sam knew one way to wake him up. " _Max_ , they're _stealing_ your _psychic toys_!"

The rabbit's eyes snapped open with a disturbed expression on his face, and he screamed briefly in protest before sinking his teeth into the soldier's exposed neck. The other soldier fell back from shock when Max closed his jaw so tightly that blood spurted from the torn flesh he was chewing and splattered against Max's white-furred face.

Sam continued to fight his way to get over to Max.

The rest of the soldiers ran for it, leaving only the two soldiers that had tried to take Max away, one of which Max was still crazily chewing the neck of.

Sam gave the other soldier a well placed punch to the jaw; knocking him out.

The soldier Max was attacking fell over, weakly trying to free himself from the lagomorph's relentless, shark-like teeth.

"You can let him go now, Max."

Max pulled away and spat out the blood that had got into his mouth, more of said blood beginning to spill onto the floor rapidly as the soldier twitched. Max watched the puddle grow quietly, but didn't really seem to think much of it.

"You okay, Max?" he asked as he gently picked up his friend.

"I think so." Max replied, grinning now while he watched the soldier stop twitching. "Hey, Sam, I think I _killed_ him!" He announced this proudly.

"Good. The bastard deserved it."

Max smiled at him, not noticing that blood was beginning to dribble out of his nose.

"Max, your nose is bleeding!"

"I just got beat over the head with the butt of a gun, Sam. Cut me some slack."

"Yeah, _alright_. I just _worry_ about you, little buddy."

"That's why I love you, Sam. By the way, did you really mean what you said? That we're through?" Max frowned as he asked this.

"I didn't mean it, Max. All the stress I've been through got to me."

Max grinned again and hugged Sam. "Let's get out of here, Sam, before someone finds the body."

"Yeah. Now they'll be looking for the both of us since I turned on them." Sam said as he started walking with Max in his arms.

"I still can't believe the Commissioner would turn on us like this. After all we did for the guy. I oughta sink my teeth into _his_ throat." Max grumbled. "By the way, that was fun, but who would've thought that blood tastes like _copper_? I'd always figured it'd taste like _chicken_ or something!"

"You tasted the iron that's in blood, Max."

" _Blech_. There's _iron_ in blood? Damn shame - looks like being a vampire isn't for me, then."

"Vampires can't stand _silver_ , little buddy."

"Really? So then those wolf-things aren't fond of _garlic_. I kept thinking I was right having it the other way around, but I guess I was mistaken."

"Vampires can't stand garlic and werewolves can't be around silver."

"Oh. You're making my head hurt, Sam. Stop confusing me."

"Okay, buddy." he said, wincing a bit and now feeling all the bruises and wounds he got while fighting the soldiers.

"Sam? You alright?"

"I'll be fine, Max. I'm more worried about you."

"You sure? You look a little faint." Max grabbed Sam by the tie and pulled their faces close together. "DON'T _FAINT_ ON ME, SAM!" He joked. " _DON'T GO TOWARDS THE LIGHT_!"

"I'm not _that_ badly hurt, Max."

"I know, but I like it when things are _dramatic_." Max continued to grin his typical grin with his now partially-bloodstained teeth.

Sam smiled back as he continued to walk.


	3. A Refuge and Refugees

Sam smiled back as he continued to walk.

"So where are we gonna go _now_ , Sam?" Max asked.

"Dunno. They know where we live so we can't go back there."

Max seemed to think, but he probably wasn't thinking about anything relevant. This was half-proven when he suggested that they stay with Geek, who was still hospitalized from his freak-out a few days prior that he couldn't remember.

Sam tried to think as well but couldn't think of where to go.

"Wait, so why can't we stay with Geek? She's cool; it's not like she'll immediately turn us in or anything!"

"Did you forget you put her into the hospital after biting her?"

"Oh. Oh yeah, I remember that now. She asked me where I put my gun one too many times... She _deserved_ it."

"I guess we have to go back to our place." Sam sighed.

"Wait, Sam. If Geek is in the hospital, why don't we stay at _her_ place? Not like she'll be going back to it anytime soon."

"That is a good point, Max. Alright, let's go there."

When they got there, they ran into a bit of a dilemma - that being the fact that the door was locked.  
Max looked up and pointed wildly. "Look, Max - I mean, Sam. Geez, I'm bad at remembering who's who nowadays." The rabbit cleared his throat. "A window up there is open! Maybe you can throw me up."

"Hope this works!" Sam yelled as he threw Max up towards the window.

Max grabbed the windowsill and pulled himself into the window, looking back out to give Sam a thumbs up. A couple seconds later, Max opened the front door. "Sam," The rabbit said through his teeth. "She only has _one bed_."

"You take it, little buddy. I'll sleep on the couch." Sam said as he walked in.

Usually, Max would have jumped at such an offer, but he for once seemed a little disturbed. "Eh... _Really_? You're sure you don't want it? Because her couch is... heh, how do I say... a little... ' _small_ '. Okay, I'll be blunt - it's a chair, Sam. A _chair_. She doesn't own a couch, which concerns me more than it probably should considering she lives on her own."

"I'm sure about it. You need it more than me."

"Sam, _I_ can sleep on the chair. I think I'll fit it quite nicely. You should take the bed, I'll be fine." He looked away. "Oboy, I'm becoming _responsible_. _WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME_?"

"I dunno, but thanks for thinking of me, Max." the dog smiled.

"Don't let it go to your head, Sam." The rabbit wobbled a little. "I think those blows to the head are taking their toll. It's sort of a _cool_ feeling though, _hee hee_!"

"You better go lay down for a while."

"Yeah... Yeah, I'll... I'll do that..." The rabbit turned to walk to the chair, but soon after collapsed due to his injured knee, exhaustion, and pain.

Sam caught the weary rabbit and gently laid him in the chair.

Max didn't fit quite as well as he'd suggested, but he curled up and snuggled against the cushion regardless.

Sam found a blanket and gently laid it on him.

The lagomorph relaxed a little. Sam wondered if it was a good idea, though, to leave the little guy downstairs alone.

"You know what, Max? Maybe we should _share_ the bed for now."

Max wasn't really fully conscious to clearly hear the suggestion, so he just sort of nodded subconsciously.

Sam gently carried him to the bedroom; being careful with him and didn't want to wake him.

Max remained asleep.

Sam gently laid Max down onto the bed before climbing in himself. He yawned a bit before he fell asleep.

He woke up to Max's face, staring blankly at him with wide eyes.

Sam got startled and fell off the bed backwards.

Max sat on the side of the bed Sam had been on, dangling his legs over the edge of the bed. He said nothing, as if stunned by something.

"That's _one way_ to wake someone..." he groaned as he started to get up.

"You think _that's_ surprising? Just picture my reaction when I woke up _snuggled into your chest_." Max said casually.

Sam's eyes bugged as he sat up.

"I thought I said I'd sleep on the couch. Chair. _Whatever_. Why'd you bring me up here to sleep with you?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were going to be alright."

Max smiled a little. "I'll accept that answer." The doorbell rung downstairs, attracting Max's immediate attention. "Ooh, _guests_! I wonder who it could be."

"Um, Max? We're not supposed to be here."

"Aw, come on, Sam - what harm could it do to check? This isn't even our house!"

"Alright, but be ready for anything."

Max pulled out his Luger. "I always am." With that, the rabbit quickly left the room and went downstairs to answer the door.

Sam quickly followed him down.

Max held the gun behind his back as he opened the door. He frowned.  
"... No one's there, Sam." He said as he looked at the dog to his right. "I'm not hearing things again, am I?" He asked, not noticing the red dot that appeared on his chest and moved up to the side of his head.

" ** _GET DOWN_**!" Sam yelled out and tackled Max down just before a shot was fired at Max.

On the ground, Max cheered a little. "Oboy, Sam! Snipers! _Real_ snipers! The Commissioner _shouldn't have_!"

"Not something to cheer about- **_AHH_**! _Damn it_!" Sam yelped as he got shot in the shoulder.

" _Sam_!" Max pulled his friend away from the doorway and seemed to panic a little. "Sam, I think they saw you get hit! They're gonna charge in here any minute now!" The little rabbit leaped up and kicked the door shut.

"If that's the case, you better get outta here, Max. I'll hold them off so you can escape." Sam struggled to get his gun into his hand since the shoulder that was hit was his gun arm.

"No way, Sam...!" Max refused to leave. "I'm not gonna let you stay behind and have all the fun! We're best friends - we have to stick together to the end, don't we?"

The dog teared up a bit as he smiled at his dear friend. "You got it, little buddy."

The rabbit wandered off and came back with an empty coffee cup in his hands. "And now, we wait."  
When the door was kicked open, the cup flew out of Max's hands and smashed on the soldier's helmet.

Sam started to fire his gun at the soldiers.

Noticing their resistance, the soldiers backed off, and shortly after, a smoke grenade was tossed in through a window.  
Max watched the smoke begin to fill the room. He, strangely enough, seemed practically unaffected by it.

Unfortunately, Sam _was_ , as he started to cough and stagger a bit until he collapsed heavily to the floor and blacked out.

" _Sam_!" Max was about to run over when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him. He struggled in the grasp of the soldier that held him as he started to scream in protest. " _LEMME GO_! _SAM_! _**SAM**_!" They carried the hyperkinetic rabbity thing out and handcuffed him, tossing him into the back of a truck, where he started to snarl at them until they slammed the doors shut and drove away.  
Soon after, the smoke started to clear up.

Slowly, Sam started to wake up, feeling woozy. "M- _Max_..?" he asked as he looked around. When he saw that Max was nowhere to be seen, he knew his little buddy had captured.

Seeing as Sam had been left behind, it appeared that he was being given a choice. He could leave Max with them and walk free, or he could get back on the military's bad side and try to rescue his little buddy.

There was no way Sam was going to let his best friend be used against his will. He staggered to his feet, and went out to find Max.


	4. Selflessness

Max was most likely at that military base where they'd had that huge fight with the soldiers, and if Sam knew anything at all about procedures, Max was probably undergoing tests to prove whether or not he actually had psychic abilities.

He knew he had to hurry to save his little buddy, so he ran out the best he could to get to the base.

When he eventually got there, he realized he needed to find a way to sneak inside.

He picked up a rock and threw it in the opposite direction, hoping the guards would go to see about the noise.

At first it seemed like only one would leave, but that one forced the other to come along, being cowardly.

Sam grinned and hurried into the base.

From where he stood, he could see the tests going on. Apparently Sam had impeccable timing, as the guard that was stationed here was apparently on a bathroom break or something.  
"What color am I thinking of, Max?" A man asked the rabbit, who looked broken and had a collar around his neck.  
" _Orange_." Usually, Max would have made a comment after mentioning this color, it being his favorite color, but he instead kept his mouth shut.  
A wooden block was placed in front of him.  
"What do you expect me to do with this?"  
"Pick it up with your powers."  
"Dude, telekinesis only works on coffee cups."  
"Pick it up."  
"I'm telling you, I _can't_! Does it look like a coffee cup to you?"  
Max suddenly seemed to have a little spasm and grabbed at the collar.  
"Start cooperating more, Max. It pains me to have to hurt you."  
"Get this damned thing _offa_ me, you sadist!"

Sam growled and tackled down the man. "That's my buddy you're torturing, pal!"

"Sam! I knew you'd come to _shhfn_ -." Max couldn't finish as he got a hand around his mouth, which he immediately bit. He was pulled out of the room by the soldier that was holding back a scream, leaving Sam and the man in charge of the tests alone.  
"Maybe if your ' _buddy_ ' knew who was in charge, he wouldn't be getting hurt." The man responded to Sam.

"You have _no right_ to do to him what you did! He doesn't deserve it!"

"He needs to learn to cooperate fully."

"He wasn't lying about not able to move the block with his powers! It only works on coffee mugs!"

"That's ridiculous, and you know it."

"Hey, I should know about my best buddy! I've known him for _years_!"

"And yet you convince yourself that his most powerful asset is only available for use on _worthless mugs_?"

"Max never had a reason to lie to me!" Sam growled, now starting to get pissed.

"Unless he was scared. Have you ever thought of _that_ , Sam?"

"Scared? He has no reason to be scared around me."

"Did you ever think that maybe he was scared of his powers? My theory is that he just didn't want you to know how powerful he really was, lest he make you scared of him."

"I would never be afraid of his powers!"

"You're sure _he_ knows that?"

Sam fell silent. He never thought of that at all.

"Now do you realize that he might be able to do a lot more than he says he can? He's probably the most powerful being in the universe, but he just refuses to show it so he'll seem normal."  
This could somewhat explain why Max always acted so loopy, considering it were true.

"It doesn't matter to me. He'll always be my little buddy no matter what. I know I yelled at him at times and said some things I didn't mean, but he's the best friend I'll ever have!"

"Why don't you stick around for a little and watch the rest of the tests? He'll be much more useful here than he would without a purpose, and also less dangerous."

"You honestly think I'm going to let you keep torturing my friend? Think again."

"It won't be torture for him if you help me talk him into obeying the instructions."

"But then you'll use him like a _tool_!"

"Would you rather he run rampant again like he did a few days ago?"

"I'd rather have him like _that_ than to have him be a brainwashed tool of yours!"

"You'd rather he lose his mind and take more innocent lives? You have a _strange_ sense of _morals_ , Sam. What if the next time he snaps, he hurts you? Or what if he hurts himself?"

"He would _never_ hurt me or himself!"

"Think about what you just said while you think about whether or not you expected him to attack one of your allies and then a ton of other people. He'll be put to a better use if he stays _here_! He'll be safe from himself, and so will everyone else."

"I _won't_ let you use him! I'm going to get my buddy outta here!" Sam growled.

"I suppose that leaves us with only one choice, then. We'll have to keep him from you by force."

"You're not going to keep him from me! I'm going to bust him outta here!"

"You know what? Go ahead and try. You won't make it very far." The man was very dismissive of the idea of them actually escaping, and he went as far as to call for the soldiers to return Max to the room. "Now you can make a final decision. Will you help in the tests, or will you try to take him from us?"

"You already know my answer, you bastard!"

A soldier returned Max to the room, and the rabbit immediately brightened when he saw Sam was still there.  
"Sa~m!" He jumped up and clung to his friend. "Take me out of here, Sam, before I rip this guy's jugular vein open too."

Sam hugged Max back. "Of course I'll get you out of here, little buddy." The dog looked at the man. "Max is coming with me and I will _kill_ you if you try to stop me."

"Give it a shot." The man said offhandedly.  
"Ooh, Sam, a _death threat_? I love it!" Max grinned.

Sam shakily raised his gun at the man. "Help me _aim_ , Max. My arm's still messed up from earlier."

"Oh, I'll do _more_ than help you _aim_ , Sam." Max held Sam's arm in place with one hand, and with the other, he aimed with his own gun.  
"Where in the _world_ do you keep that thing?" The man asked Max.  
Max twitched a little in response to the question, and a side of his grin was yanked down by an invisible force, making it half frown and half grin.

"That's one thing you _don't_ ask Max, asshole." Sam said as he fired his gun.

He managed to nick the guy, but that was about it - he and Max never had been very good shots.  
Max screamed at the guy and lunged at him, practically throwing the gun away and deciding to use just his razor-sharp teeth instead. The last time he'd been asked that question, he completely lost his mind, so it seemed somewhat ironic that the man had been talking about how Max would be kept sane here and then he accidentally ended up making Max lose it.

Sam smirked as he watched Max start to maul the man.

Soon, the murderous rabbit stood, more blood on him than before. He stared down at the man's husk under him, noting somewhere in his random little head that he was dead.

"Let's get outta here, little buddy."

The noise seemed to startle Max, who had already hated being startled, as the lagomorph whipped around and jumped at Sam, nearly slamming the dog into the wall. He started to let out his unnatural snarl when suddenly he stopped and examined his ' _prey_.'  
"Oh, Sam, it's _you_. Sorry, I think my undying rage and my berserk and bloodthirsty thoughts blinded me for a second there. Good thing I caught myself, huh? _Hee hee_!"

The dog stood there in shock. "You almost _attacked_ me..."

"You startled me, Sam. You know how much I _hate_ to be startled. Remember that time I shot a clown in the face because he came outta nowhere?" The rabbit snickered as he jumped down from Sam and picked up his Luger, putting it back in his mysterious hammerspace. "Good times. Now let's go before this urge to kill grows beyond my control, yes?"

Sam nodded and started to walk.

"Sam, you know I'd never hurt you, _r_ -" As they stepped outside, Max started to stutter and he backed away quickly, gently grabbing the collar around his neck and trying to look at it. He shrugged at something and tried to walk outside, only to be reduced to his knees when the collar activated and started to electrocute him.

Sam looked back at his friend and hurried over to him, grabbing the collar and trying to get it off Max.

It only zapped him too as Max crumpled to the floor and nearly cried out, kicking his feet wildly. It wasn't going to come off that easy.

Sam ended up letting go of the collar and falling back, panting in pain.

Max tried to push himself back into the building, but he couldn't, so he just lay there and writhe.

Sam quickly but carefully picked up Max and hurried back into the building.

The collar turned off again and Max trembled weakly in Sam's grip.

"I'll figure out a way to get that off you, little buddy." he reassured Max.

"I hope you _do_ , Sam..." The rabbit replied in an almost drunken-sounding tone, looking about ready to faint.

Sam held the injured rabbit as he looked for a way to get the collar off.

"Sam..." Max droned. "Sam, the _soldiers_ are coming..."

"Damn it! And we're in no shape to fight them!" he said as he ran to find cover.

"Just let me _go_ , Sam... It's _me_ they want... You can _escape_ if you _let me go_..." Max said. Sam wondered a bit if the electric shocks had effected Max greater than it seemed on the outside, as the rabbit wasn't regularly so selfless.

" _No way_ , Max. We're best buddies and best buddies stay together until the end. If they want _you_ , they'll have to take _me_ , _too_."

Max snuggled into his friend a bit.  
One of the soldiers pulled out his gun and started shooting at Sam.

Sam tried to run but yelled in pain as he got shot several times and fell against the wall.

" _Sam_?!" Max jumped out of Sam's arms, now jolted into awareness, and knelt next to his friend. The soldiers approached slowly. The rabbit saw the wounds and must realized the _seriousness_ of them, judging by the grim look on his face.  
One of the soldiers raised their gun to shoot Max, seeing him as a threat.

Sam panted heavily as he tried to raise his gun at them, but couldn't find the strength to do so.

They pulled the trigger, and Sam saw the bullet stop behind Max's head. The lagomorph stood, trembling, and slowly turned to face the soldiers.  
"You just made the _worst mistake of your lives_." Max growled at them. The rabbit then screamed like a child having a temper tantrum, and everything started to go to hell around him. Guns discharged, crates flew into people, lights smashed, and most of all, people were killed.

Sam saw blood splattering everywhere just before he passed out.


	5. Beginning of Nightmares

He woke up later on the bed in Geek's house. His wounds had been crudely treated, and Max sat next to him in a floating chair, practically covered in blood.

"M-Max...? Is that you...?"

"Sam! Oboy, I'm so relieved that you woke up. I took a trophy from our little battle back there." The now-crimson rabbit lift his hand, and a decapitated head floated up from the floor. "I figured I'd need something to remember this moment - the full release of my once-latent psychic powers!"

"You have full use of your powers now...?"

"Completely full use! As you can probably already tell, telekinesis works on more than just coffee cups now, and that's not all I can do, not even close!"

Sam winced as he carefully sat up. "What else can you do?"

"A lot of very destructive things, Sam. I love it! I set guys on fire back there just by thinking about it, and I can teleport now too!"

"That's great, Max."

The rabbit made the chair he sat in spin slowly in circles. "So anyways, I brought you back here after I killed them all. I tried to heal you, but the most I was able to do was set fire to the end of your tie, so I decided to just use that red box that Geek kept in the bathroom cabinet. Guess I don't have a healing power."

"You tried your best, little buddy."

Max shrugged a bit.

Sam winced more as he tried to get out of bed.

He was forced back down by an invisible force.  
"You shouldn't be trying to move about yet, Sam. Those bastards hurt you pretty bad back there."

"I'm not _that_ badly hurt, am I?"

"Trust me, Sam. You'll only hurt yourself more if you move around. Relax while you have the time. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go try gnawing this collar off again."

"Okay, Max." Sam said as he laid back down.

Max and the chair floated out of the room, leaving Sam alone.

Sam decided to get some much needed sleep and closed his eyes.

When he awoke later, Max was still out of the room.

He slowly got out of bed and went to look for him in the house.

The rabbit was restlessly wandering about the house, seeming bored and lonesome.

"Max? Are you okay?"

"Sam?" Max looked at him. "I thought I told you to stay in bed, Sam."

"I know but I wanted to check on you, and you look so lonely."

Max looked away. On top of everything else, the rabbit was still acting strange and unlike his usual self.

"Max, is something wrong?"

"Of course not, Sam. What makes you think something's wrong?"

"You're not acting like your usual self."

"I'm not? Hm. Well, I feel fine - better than ever, really - so I don't really know what you mean, Sam."

"I think I know what's wrong. You think I'm going to treat you different now that your powers are fully unleashed."

"When did you become a psychic too, Sam?" The rabbit looked only a tad concerned. "I mean, I hope you won't treat me any different now that I'm at least 10 times as impulsively destructive than I was before." Max then giggled a bit.

Sam hugged the rabbit, ignoring his own wounds. "I would never treat you different, little buddy. You're my best buddy."

Max seemed pleased as he gently held Sam back. "Thanks, Sam. I _think_ that means a lot to me."

The dog smiled at his friend. "And thanks for saving my hide back there."

"What else was I supposed to do, Sam? Leave you there for them to test later, considering anyone ever returned since I killed them all? _Hee hee_!"

"Good point." Sam groaned a bit. "Damn. I think I reopened one of my wounds."

The still-blood-caked lagomorph pulled back from the hug. "You'd better go lay back down, Sam."

"I will, Max." Sam said as he headed for the bedroom.

As he left the room, Max seemed to go right back to acting strange.

Sam laid back down on the bed and went to sleep.

He started to have a very strange dream.

He was in an empty room, and he was covered in blood.

It was quiet in the room... _too_ quiet.

Sam started to walk and look around.

Max was nowhere to be found.

Sam kept walking. "Max, are you here somewhere?" he called out.

Silence.

The dog got a chill down his spine as he kept walking.

Soon he found Max, who was dancing around, playing with fire via his apparent pyrokinesis.

"Max?"

Max looked over quickly as the fire dissipated. He said nothing - he only stared at Sam with his teeth showing per normal.

"What's going on, little buddy?"

"Nothing." He said quickly.

"You're acting strange again."

The rabbit twitched a little. He almost looked ready to pounce.

"M-Max...?" he stammered as he backed up a bit.

"Don't worry, Sam, I'd never hurt you." Just despite these words, he lunged at Sam with his jaws opened wide to bite.

Sam quickly ducked and scrambled out of the way.

Max turned to face him. "Don't make me hold you in place, Sam. I want this to be fun."

"Why are you attacking me?"

"I'm really bored, Sam. Plus, I found out I really like that red color blood adds to my fur."

"You don't have to attack me!"

"That's just it, Sam! There's no one else for me to attack other than you. You let me kill everyone else, don't you remember?"

"I-I did?"

"Yeah! It was cool, but it surprisingly didn't last long."

Sam gulped a bit.

"So let's make our final bit of teamwork really shine, okay?" The rabbit started to slowly approach.

"D-don't do this, Max!" Sam yelled as he backed into a wall.

"I have to, Sam! There's nothing else for me to do! I'm going crazy from boredom - _I have to do this_!"

Sam woke up just as Max jumped for his throat.

After a moment he noticed that the psychic lagomorph, again, was out of room.

Sam slowly got out of bed to look for him.

Max was still roaming around the house, but he looked more bored.

"You alright, Max?"

Max looked at him. "I'm so _bored_ , Sam."

Sam gulped silently. "Y-yeah?"

"What should we do?"

"Dunno."

The rabbit impatiently tapped his foot against the ground as he tried to think of something to do.

Sam's nightmare played in his head as he watched Max, hoping that Max wouldn't really attack him out of boredom.

Max looked at him. "Sam? What's up? You look pale." He then thought about that comment. " _Eeehhh_... Never mind, that made a little less sense than I hoped it would. You get the point though, right, Sam?"

"I had a bad nightmare earlier; you attacked me out of boredom."

"I'd never do that, Sam."

"I know, buddy. I know."

"I'm just so _damn_ bored... I wish we had something to do."

"Me too."

"... I wonder if there are any other hidden military bases nearby." Even as Max was saying this, Sam already knew that the rabbit was suggesting that he wanted to go off and kill some more.

"You want to kill more people, Max?"

"Well, it is pretty fun... Can I, Sam?"

Sam didn't want to disappoint his friend by saying no but he didn't like the thought that more people were going to die if he said yes.

Plus, if he said yes, the rest of the nightmare might very well occur.  
"Pretty please, Sam? It's the only thing I can think of to do." Luckily, Max was fairly easy to distract. If Sam could just find a way to change the subject to something that would hold Max's interest...

Then Sam got an idea. "I just remembered a game you used to play when things were slow during our days as Freelance Police; whack-a-roach."

"But Sam," Max pulled out a hammer. "There are no roaches here..." He put the hammer away.

"There's plenty of spiders you can whack instead."

The rabbit pulled the hammer out again and started searching for a spider to crush.

Sam let out a sigh.

Soon enough, Max found a single spider. He smashed it with the hammer, but seemed somewhat unsatisfied. Then he lit the spider's remains on fire and giggled.

Sam watched him.

Max couldn't seem to find anymore spiders, so he wandered over to Sam. "I'm exhausted, Sam. Maybe my powers still have some form of cruel limits."

"Well, this is the first time you had full use of them. You're not used to using them completely yet."

"I guess that makes sense."

"So you better get some rest."

"Okay, Sam." Max jumped onto the chair.

Sam groaned softly. His wounds weren't healing like they should and some were reopening. He needed a doctor badly.

"Sam? You're not going to faint again, are you?"

Before the dog could answer, he staggered a bit and leaned against the wall, his breathing getting weak.

Max jumped up. "Sam...? Should I use my powers to kidnap a doctor or something?"

Sam shook his head. "I'll be fine..."

The lagomorph gave Sam a worried look - a look that Sam didn't see on his face very often at all.

Sam then nearly fell over.

Max kicked the arm of the chair. "Dammit, Sam, you shouldn't lie to me. I'm just gonna quickly teleport to the hospital and grab a doctor, then I'll be right back. Though it is a damn shame that I can't put everyone there out of their _misery_."

Sam slowly nodded.

In a flash of light, Max disappeared.

Sam started to feel tired, so he slumped to the floor and closed his eyes.


	6. Impostor

When he woke up, Sam found himself in a hospital bed. Max sat next to him, but this time the chair remained stationary on the floor.

"M- _Max_...?" he said weakly.

"Oh, Sam, you're _awake_." The rabbit didn't seem to be doing so good himself, and in fact, he looked utterly exhausted and incredibly irked.

"Are you feeling okay, M-Max?"

"I probably would be if it weren't for those _damn pests_ outside trying to get inside to arrest us. I have to keep them outside. I've been keeping this up for hours, Sam!"

"They should give up soon."

"Sam, they're looking at an invisible wall. I think they're too interested by that fact to give up."

Sam thought for a moment. "Perhaps if we could scare them away..."

Max grinned a bit at the idea, his beady brown eye twitching. "Or I could set them all on fire."

"I guess that works too." Sam sighed.

He heard screams from outside, and Max's grin stretched further across his face. "That's a little better."

"You should get some sleep, little buddy. You look exhausted."

"I'll be fine, Sam."

"You sure?"

Max nodded a little, but he really did look completely fatigued and therefore seemed grumpy and irritable.

"You really should rest, Max. I think we're safe for now."

"I'm good."

"Alright."

Max went quiet.

"Max? You alright?"

" _Yeah_ , Sam."

"I _really_ think you should _rest_."

" _Sam_. I'll be _fine_." He said this a little harshly, becoming a bit annoyed.

Sam flinched a bit, not liking the harshness of his friend's voice.

Max seemed to notice, as when he spoke again, he spoke a little more gently. "I'll rest later."

"Y-yeah."

"... Sorry for snapping at you, Sam. I'm just not feeling so great."

"I understand, Max."

Max smiled a bit.

Sam smiled back as he laid down.

Max sat there quietly, running his toes along the pattern in the floor tiles.

"Wonder if the Geek is still here."

"Probably."

"I hope she's doing better."

Max didn't reply.

Sam looked at his rabbit friend. "Max?"

"Yeah, Sam?"

"Maybe we could check on her later."

"I _guess_." The lagomorph didn't seem too excited by the idea.

"We don't have to if you don't want to."

Max smiled a little.

"Well, I'm going to rest for a bit."

"Alright, Sam."

Sam smiled a bit before he fell asleep.

He started to have another bizarre dream.

Sam looked around a bit.

He was still in the hospital, but it was empty.

There was no one in sight and it gave Sam a sense of unease.

Everything felt sort of... _wrong_.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" he called out.

Max appeared beside him. "You're awake." He smiled.

Sam jumped a bit. "What happened here?"

"Have you forgotten again, Sam? I killed everyone."

"Wh-what? Why did you kill them all?"

Max shrugged. "They annoyed me."

"You can't kill people just because of that."

"That's never really stopped me before. Neither have _you_ for that matter." Max grinned.

"Wh-what?"

"You didn't try to stop me from killing them all, Sam."

"I-I _didn't_?"

Max shook his furry little head, still grinning.

"This can't be right..."

"What do you mean, Sam?"

"I would've stopped you..."

"Why?"

"It's wrong to kill people for nothing."

"They _bothered_ me, Sam. You know how much I hate being bothered."

" _That's still not a good reason to kill_!"

"What's _happened_ to you, Sam? Usually you wouldn't be scolding me like this."

"Well, you didn't kill people for fun before!"

"Because I couldn't. I _can_ now. It's _fun_ , Sam; you should try it!"

"I won't do it!"

"Why the hell not? Come on, Sam, if you've ever trusted me before, trust me on this; it's really fun!"

"I'm sorry, Max. I won't."

The rabbit frowned heavily.

"I can't kill without a reason."

That seemed to spark an idea in the rabbit's head, but it almost seemed as if he pushed it aside. "Then come up with a reason."

"I can't _make up_ a reason."

"Sure you can!"

"It's not that easy."

"Isn't it?"

"It isn't."

"Well, it's that easy for _me_."

"That's because you like doing it."

"That's true."

Sam sighed a bit.

"If it makes you feel any better, Sam, I left Geek alive."

"That's good."

"I figured she could still build cool stuff for us."

"Yeah."

Max smiled. "She's in the Basement of Solitude right now. I wonder if she's making anything."

"Well, let's go see."

Max walked out of the room. "Let's go, Sam!"

Sam nodded and followed Max.

Soon they made it to their old office. "Now where did that lever to open the wall up go to..."

"Wasn't it somewhere by the desk?"

Max searched. "Ah ha!" The wall opened up and Max threw himself onto the pole, sliding down.

Sam jumped onto the pole and slid after him.

After a few moments of sliding, they practically _flew_ into the Basement of Solitude.

Sam ended up crashing into the wall.

Max clapped. "Somehow you went farther than I did, Sam! That was fun!"

"It wasn't fun for my head..." Sam groaned as he stood shakily.

Max walked around the basement. "Hey... Geek is _hiding_ , Sam! Isn't that _cute_?"

"She's probably scared of you."

"Oh, _GEE~EEK_!" He roared, trying to scare her out of hiding.

He heard an "Eep!" in the closet.

Max ripped the closet doors open. " _Found you~_!"

Geek yelped in fear and cowered.

"Come on outta there... before I _rip_ you out with a pair of over-sized tweezers. Possibly with flamethrowers attached." He looked at Sam. "Sam, write that down. I like that idea."

Sam looked disturbed as Geek meekly came out of the closet.

"What were you doing _hiding_ , Geek? You should be working on new, fancy, dangerous gadgets for me and Sam to use!" The rabbit looked only mildly annoyed.

"S-sorry, Max, sir!" she whimpered.

"Get back to work." He said casually with his shark-toothed grin showing.

She quickly started working.

Max looked at Sam. "She's too good to us, Sam."

"Max, she's _terrified_ of you." Sam said.

"I know! It's cool, isn't it? She'll do whatever I say!"

"She's scared of you hurting her again."

"And I just might if she stops obeying me." As he said this, he became grimly serious, his grin disappearing. A few seconds after, though, his grin returned.

Geek saw this and worked harder.

Max giggled a bit. "This is great, Sam."

"I don't think so."

Max gave him a strange look. "What's wrong, Sam? Why don't you think this is great?"

"She should be happy to help us with her gadgets, not be scared and depressed."

"So?" The lagomorph sounded genuinely confused, as if he didn't feel anything for Geek at all, especially not remorse for his own actions against her.

"You changed for the worse ever since you gained full use of your powers, Max."

"For the _worse_? Don't you mean for the _better_?"

"I don't."

Max's grin disappeared, and he looks unamused. "Hah hah, _very_ funny, Sam."

"I'm not joking."

Max growled a little at him. "Whatever, Sam."

Geek slowed down a bit to watch them.

The lagomorph crossed his arms and looked away from Sam, looking mighty ticked off. Luckily for Geek, he didn't seem to notice that she'd slowed down.

She was surprised Sam was standing up to Max.

It seemed that Max didn't have any comeback against Sam, so instead he brought his psychotic little gaze down on Geek. "What the hell are you _staring_ at?!" He snapped.

Geek shrieked and got back to work.  
"That's _enough_ , Max!" Sam yelled at him.

" _Why_ , when I get _my way_ , do you suddenly _attack_ me like this, Sam?!"

"Someone needs to keep you in line!"

"You're saying I'm not in line?! I am _perfectly_ in line, Sam! What's your idea of ' _in line_ '; sitting around _bored_ outta yer _goddamned skull_?! I couldn't take that!"

"It's better than needlessly killing people!"

"Get out, Sam. Get out of here. Or would you fancy a trip into another dimension?" The rabbit snarled.

"I'll be _glad_ to leave!" Sam stormed out.

Max stood there for a moment before running after Sam almost instinctively. "Actually, Sam!" He called after him. "I am curious to see where you end up if I teleport you somewhere random!"

Sam took out his gun and pointed it at Max. "Stay away from me."

"You won't shoot me, Sam. Besides, I don't even think I need your permission or anything to teleport you. I'll give you 5 seconds before I send you somewhere. Make them count." Slowly, the rabbit started to count. "One."

Sam cocked his gun.

" _Five_!" Max skipped to the last number with a grin, and suddenly, Sam found himself someplace else.

"Dammit, Max!" he grumbled.

He actually saw the rabbit sitting on the sidewalk nearby.

Sam stomped over to him.

The hyperkinetic rabbity thing didn't really respond. He was holding Sam's hat, and had the dog's tie tied around his left ear, the largest 'flap' of it covering his left eye.

"This isn't funny, Max. Send me back."

"You know... I... I had a good friend _once_..." The rabbit didn't look at Sam as he stuttered the brief story, possibly not even meant to be heard by him. "... I... I should try to... to _find_ them... I _miss_ them..."

"What the hell are you talking about, Max?"

Max put Sam's hat on, causing his ears to have to fold back. "I'm lonely, but I... _like_ to be alone..." He said in a broken voice as he pulled his knees closer to himself.

Sam knelt down next to him. "Max?"

Still, the lagomorph didn't turn to look at him, and the tie covering his left eye didn't allow him to see out of the corner of his eye.  
"You sound... _familiar_..." The rabbit gave a tiny, crooked smile at these words, but then the smile faded and was replaced with a frown.

Sam moved the tie. "That's because I'm Sam."

Max froze up for a moment. He then lethargically reached up and pulled the tie off of his ear. He gripped either end in his hands, and then he leaped at Sam and tackled him down, pressing the tie down against his throat with tears in his weary brown eyes.  
"I don't know who you are or why you're pretending to be Sam, but you'd better _knock it the hell off_ **_RIGHT NOW_**!" The rabbit sounded both threatening and emotionally crushed.

Sam choked. "I really _am_ Sam!"

"You're _not_ Sam! Sam..." The tears overflowed, and while the rabbit kept trying to choke the 'impostor' out, his grip ended up growing weak. " _Sam's_... _dead_..."


	7. Fear in Relation to Control

"Wh- _what_? I'm _dead_?"

Max covered his eyes, soaking the tie with his tears. "God, it's all my fault...! I miss him so much... I didn't mean to... _to_... It's all my fault..!"

"What did you do?"

"I... I... I couldn't... I couldn't control my p- _powers_ , and... _and_..." Max started bawling against Sam's chest. "I'm sorry! God, I'm _so sorry_!"

Sam gently held him.

The rabbit continued to cry, trembling. Gently and hesitantly, he held Sam back. "I've done _horrible_ things..."

Sam gently pat his back.

Soon, Max started to relax a bit. He sniffled and rubbed at his eyes with dirty hands, the tips of his fingers looking to be stained a little red. "I get it... I must'a finally lost it, now I'm _seeing things_... _That's_ why you're here..."

"Actually, I'm _real_. I'm from another dimension where the you _I know_ sent me here."

"Now I _really_ know I've lost it..." The rabbit's ears perked up at the sound of a woman crying out for help in an alley. He picked up the hat from this world's Sam and slicked his ears back again to put it on. "Stay here, or... disappear... Do whatever you hallucinations do. I'm going to go deal with that scream."

"I'll help you."

Max gestured for him to leave, but Sam felt compelled to at least watch over the rabbit for the time being. Max stood and walked into the alley.  
"Hey, you." He called out somewhat timidly.  
"What do you want, shorty?!" Shouted a man with a knife who was going to mug and rob the woman who he had trapped before him.  
"Put the knife down and back away from that woman."  
"And if I don't?"  
"I'll... I'll call the cops."  
The man laughed at such a petty threat.  
Max walked closer to him, as if trying to get closer to start a more compelling conversation, and in response the man grabbed the rabbit by the neck, threatening to cut him.  
"You're so short and light. You'd make a nice _throw rug_."

Sam was glad the punk wasn't paying attention to him, which allowed him to cock his gun and place the barrel against the guy's head. "Drop the rabbit."

"Whoa, man, I was just kidding..." The man dropped Max and the knife roughly.  
Typically, Max would've grabbed the knife and stabbed the man with it somewhere, but instead he seemed to force his eyes away from it as he just sort of watched the man.

"Now get out. If I see you pull a stunt like this again, I'll blow your brains out."

That last part seemed to make Max a little nervous and twitchy as the crooked smile returned to his face. Hesitantly, the man fled.  
"Thank you so much." The woman said.

"You're welcome, ma'am." Sam smiled as he put the gun away.

Max picked up the knife, gazing at the woman, who seemed unnerved by his now-near-lifeless gaze.

"Max, what are you doing?"

"S- _Sam_..." The rabbit looked pained as he tightened his grip on the knife, as if he were trying to let it go.  
The woman backed away a bit, now looking afraid of the mentally-fractured lagomorph.

Sam made him let the knife go.

The woman had hurried off at this point.  
"Sorry... I... I don't know what happens to me sometimes. I just... Something sets me off, and I just can't help myself and I... I usually _hurt_ people, Sam. I've _hurt_ so many people."

"I think from the moment you gained full use of your powers, they began to control you."

"I don't want to hurt anyone _else_ , Sam... I never wanted to really hurt _anyone_..."

"I know, buddy. I know." Sam said as he hugged the rabbit.

Max hugged back, trembling a little as he did so.

"I'm here for you, buddy."

Max watched in silent horror as the knife floated up and aimed itself at Sam's back.  
"... S- _Sam_...?"

"What's wrong, Max?"

"B-behi-..." The rabbit could tell that his telekinesis was about to launch it towards its target, and his eyes widened. " ** _MOVE, SAM_**!"

Sam quickly looked over his shoulder, then ducked; pulling Max down too.

The knife soared over them, and Max seemed shaken up and scared. "I'm losing control again...!"

"You've got to get a hold of it!"

"I-I don't know _how_...!" Max curled up into a little ball, presumably trying to fight back against his powers.

"Have faith in yourself! Don't give into the fear of losing control! Don't be afraid!"

Max tried to relax and be confident in his ability to control his powers, when suddenly a nearby trash bin ignited. The rabbit's eyes widened as he stared at the flames that he'd unintentionally created, and he nearly screamed at the sight of them.

" _Don't be afraid_!"

" _Not the fire_! _**Anything** but the **fire**_!" Max used the brim of that universe's Sam's hat to shield his eyes.

"Max, don't give into the fear! Stand up to it!"

"I can stand up to _anything_ but the _fire_!" Max trembled wildly and shook his head. "B-because I... I accidentally _set you on fire_ before...!"

"Is that how the me from here died?"

Max nodded feverishly.

"I'm _here_ now. You can _beat_ this power and fear."

Max then shook his head with equal feverish-ness. "No, Sam, I can't... I'm too destructive by nature..." The little rabbit then hurried over to Sam and clung to his suit jacket. "Turn me in, Sam! Take me to the cops! I deserve to be in prison like the rest of my family members!"

"I could never turn in my best buddy." Sam said as he hugged him.

"Everyone in my family's a psychopath... I was _stupid_ to think I could live normally...!"

"But you _can_ , Max."

"I _can't_ , though! Not without hurting everyone I care about and others!"

"Buddy, I can _help_ you."

Max looked at him slowly.

"Max, we're _friends_. That's normal."

"I _killed_ you before... Hell, I nearly killed you _again_ just a minute ago...!" Max frowned.

"Yeah, but you _warned_ me. You had some control over it."

" _That_ was a first..."

"Yes, it was. You took the first step towards having full control of your powers."

"Pretty lame for a first step..." Max said with a faint shadow of a smile on his face. After a moment, the rabbit's stomach grumbled. "Igh... Damn, guess I'm-" The lagomorph watched as the fire went out, seeming to get an idea from that. "That's _it_ , Sam! I just have to be too weak to use my powers!"

"But you need to eat."

"I'd rather starve than run the risk of killing you again, Sam."

"But you would die and I don't want that."

"I'll eat a little if I get to that point. Just _a little_ , though."

"Alright, Max."

Max smiled a little. "I'm happy I won't have to deal with my powers now."

"Yeah."

"I'm also glad to have you back... I really missed you, Sam..."

Sam smiled and hugged him.

Max hugged him back.

"I missed you too."

"Let's go back _home_ , Sam." The dirty rabbit who looked like he'd been through hell and back let go of Sam and started to walk.

Sam walked with him.


	8. Stubborn Exhaustion

Soon, Sam and Max made it back home.  
It seemed like the rabbit was not just starving, but _exhausted_ as well, as he was beginning to drag his feet and slouch with a tired facial expression.

"You should go get some sleep."

"I'm fine, Sam..."

"But you look so tired."

" _Sam_..." Max gave Sam a serious look, as if trying to make it clear that physical exhaustion was what he wanted.

Sam sighed. "Fine."

Max smiled just a little as he stepped into the house.

Sam walked in with him.

"House is just the same as I remember it..."

"Yeah."

Max shivered for a second as he held in a yawn, then he looked at Sam. "What now...?"

"Don't know."

Max looked away. "... I haven't been here for a while... I left everything as it was before you died..."

"Hey, don't dwell on the past. I'm here now."

"I'm sorry, Sam..." Max wrapped his arms around Sam's leg in an awkward 'embrace'. "I can't help it..."

Sam gently pat the rabbit's head. "It's alright. I understand."

The lagomorph actually let out some sort of purr. He felt more than safe now that he was in Sam's company, and it seemed he was starting to unwittingly fall asleep holding the dog's leg.

Sam smiled and continued to pet his head.

Soon enough, Max had fallen into a moderately peaceful-looking sleep.

Sam gently picked him up and carried him to the bedroom.

Max seemed to force himself awake. " _Sam_?" He asked, trying to sound awake.

"Shh. You're alright, Max. I've got you." Sam said in a soft voice and gently pet his head.

"I don't want to sleep, Sam..."

"You need to sleep at least a little bit."

"Why? If I do, then I might lose control of my powers again."

"It'll be okay."

Max shook his head, still seeming scared. "No. No, it _won't_ be, Sam."

Sam sighed.

The rabbit jumped out of Sam's arms, his legs nearly giving out as he landed. "I'm _fine_ right now, Sam..."

"If you're sure."

"... What about you? Do you need anything?"

"I'm alright, Max."

"Well... Just... Just tell me if you need anything."

"I will, Max."

The rabbit smiled a bit and then started to pace around the house.

Sam watched him.

He started to look more and more worn out.

"You really should sleep."

"I'm fine, Sam..."

"But, Max..."

"I-I'm _fine_..."

"Alright."

After a few minutes, Sam heard Max collapse.

Sam quickly got up and ran to his side.

Max was trying to get back up. "I-I'm okay, Sam...! I just... tr- _tripped_..."

Sam helped him up. "You tripped because you're overtired."

The rabbit ignored the comment and tried to keep pacing around.

"Max, you _need_ sleep."

"Sam, if I go to sleep, I'll _kill_ you after I wake up. I just _know_ I will. I don't _want_ that to happen..."

"But then you could die."

"I'd rather kill myself than kill you again..."

" _Max_..."

Tears in his beady brown eyes, Max looked at Sam.

Sam gently hugged the rabbit. "I don't want to lose you."

Max hugged him back. "It was _so_ horrible, Sam... Being _alone_ with that _guilt_..."

"I would bet."

"Everyone hates me now..."

" _I_ don't hate you."

Max hugged him a little tighter.

"You care more about me than my world's Max. He's the one who sent me here."

"Maybe I care more because I've had time to grow up a little and see how much you mean to me..."

Sam hugged him a bit tighter.

"I just can't take the risk of losing you again, Sam..."

"I _know_ , Max."

"So th-that's wh- _why_..." Max trailed off, seeming to grow weak quickly.

"Max?"

"I-I don't _feel_ so good, Sam..." It seemed like Max was struggling to stay awake.

"You made yourself sick by starving and exhausting yourself."

Max moaned quietly.

" _Please_ , Max. You _have_ to _rest_."

He tried to refuse, but ended up blacking out trying to shake his head.

Sam gently carried him to the bed and laid him down.

The lagomorph trembled weakly.

Sam gently covered him with a blanket.

Max snuggled into it.

Sam smiled and watched over him.

The battered rabbit tossed and turned.

Sam gently pet his head.

Max groaned a bit.

"Poor Max..."

He continued to sleep uncomfortably.

Sam felt his head.

It was hot.

Sam's ears drooped.

Max turned over again.

Sam got up and went to the bathroom; picking up a washcloth. He ran it under some cool water and wrung it out before gently placing it on Max's forehead.

The lagomorph relaxed just a little.

Sam then sat back down and watched over him until he, too, fell asleep.


	9. Nidicolous Lagomorph(s)

Sam awoke to find himself in the hospital, having slipped out of the dream.

He looked around for Max.

The rabbit was still beside him. "Sam! Good, you're awake."

"How long was I sleeping?"

"An hour or so."

"So all that was a dream?"

"Whatever you're talking about, yeah, probably."

"Oh, _good_."

"Was it _that_ bad, Sam?"

"Yes, it was." Sam replied as he began to tell his friend about it.

Max fell silent, as if Sam were talking of one of his fears.

"It scared _me_ , too."

Max seemed a bit awkward all of the sudden.

"Max?"

"Yeah, Sam?"

"Are you alright?"

"... Yeah. I'm fine."

"Alright, if you say so."

"I'm bored again, Sam."

"Maybe you could go make birds explode."

Max grinned. "I could try."

"Alright."

Max got off of his chair and hurried over to the window.

Sam watched him.

"Ooh! There's a whole nest of birds in a tree over there!"

"Don't do it to them. That's a family."

Max's grin disappeared at the mention of the word ' _family_.'

"Max?"

"Is... Is _family_ a real word, Sam?"

"Yes it is, Max."

"Doesn't _sound_ like one..."

"I didn't mean to reopen an old wound for you, Max."

Max shuddered a little and got down from the window, going back to the chair, where he shuddered again.

"Max? Are you alright?"

Quietly, Max nodded, though he shuddered again briefly.

"You never really _had_ a family, did you?"

The hyperkinetic rabbity thing shook his head slowly.

"Wish I could show you how it feels to be in one." Sam said, not noticing a pair of beady eyes watching them.

Max noticed, however. "... Sam. Sam, turn around." He said, making eye contact with what was watching them.

Sam turned his head and looked. There standing was a little rabbit that kinda looked like Max but with a black spot on their ear.

Max narrowed his own beady eyes at the rabbit, somewhat confused. He said nothing.

"C-can I stay with you guys..?" the rabbit asked in a small, female voice.

Max looked at Sam, as Sam was typically the one to make the choices for the two of them.

"Sure." Sam smiled.

Max shot Sam a strange look.

Then he noticed how messy the little rabbit looked and how she looked like she hadn't eaten in weeks.

"... Kid... Where'd you come from?" Max asked, almost sounding a little shy.

"A-an alley. My parents dumped me there weeks ago."

"What? They _ditched you in an alley_?" Max looked at Sam and scoffed. "Parents these days."

"It's because I can do this." She cupped her little hands as a ice crystal formed in them.

Max's jaw dropped open a little, revealing his sharp teeth to the girl. "You have powers _too_?"

"You have powers too, Mister?" she asked.

"I _do_. I've unlocked _all_ of my powers, too." Max created a small ball of fire, holding it in the air with his telekinesis.

"Oh _wow_!" the little rabbit watched in awe and smiled.

Max made the ball dissipate, and he grinned at the girl with his shark-like teeth. He looked crazy by nature in that moment, and the girl noticed that what she had thought were patches of burgundy fur were actually blood caking his white fur.

"That's so _cool_!" she smiled more, showing she has sharp teeth too.

He seemed startled by her teeth for a moment, but then he shook it off, thinking that the only logical explanation was that his family wasn't the only line of rabbits to have sharp teeth.

The small rabbit giggled as she hugged Max. "Finally there's someone like me!" she cheered.

Max looked at Sam again before he timidly half-hugged her back.

"Looks like it was a good thing to take her in." Sam smiled.

Max almost looked worried about something as he averted his eyes.

"Is something wrong, Mister?" the little rabbit asked.

Max didn't respond to her as he looked back at Sam. "Sam, we've got trouble headed this way."

"Them again?" Sam asked.

Max nodded. "I... I could deal with them again if you want."

"Yeah, you can."

Max started to giggle crazily as more screams were heard outside. "This is fun."

"Are those mean men out there?" the little rabbit asked.

"Oh, don't worry. They're all dead now." Max said before breaking into a fit of insane laughter.

The rabbit girl didn't seem fazed by this.

Max looked at Sam with a crazed expression.

Sam was a bit weirded out by that.

Max noticed and forced himself to relax a little. "Sorry."

"It's alright, Max." he said.

"Do you think we should get a move on, Sam? Or do you need to stay here a bit longer?" Max asked.

"I think I can go now."

Max looked back at the rabbit girl briefly. "Then let's get out of here while everyone's so focused on what happened outside."

Sam got up and picked up the rabbit girl.

Max hurried and opened the door, but then he froze up. He shook a bit, then looked at Sam. "Sam, I feel weird."

"Weird how?"

"It's... hard to explain." Max shook his head. "I must be imagining it... Let's just get going."

"Alright."

Max hurried out.

Sam followed him with the girl.

Soon enough, a nurse or two had shown up to object that Sam couldn't possibly be ready to leave yet. Max scowled at them, and shortly after, they combusted.  
Max grinned. "Wow, Sam! Looks really _can_ kill!"

"It seems so."

As they hurried to leave the hospital, Max kept setting random people ablaze and causing further chaos.

Sam hurried out with him.

Max giggled as they stepped outside and saw the destruction he'd caused.

The rabbit girl hid her face from it.

Max seemed confused by her reaction. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asked her.

"That's _scary_! They're all _dead_!" she cried.

"I know! Isn't it _great_?"

She cried more.

"... Sam, why do you think she's crying?"

"Not everyone likes to see death like you do, Max. It scares her."

Max fell silent.

"It reminds me of when I accidentally killed my neighbors!" she bawled.

Max couldn't seem to find any sympathy to return in response, so instead he kept his mouth shut and kept walking.

Sam sighed and tried to comfort the girl.

Max kept glancing back at them every so often, but didn't have the slightest idea of what to do for the girl.

The girl sniffled a bit.

"I'm... _sorry_...?" Max muttered under his breath while looking away.

The rabbit girl hugged him. "Thank you, Mr. Max."

Max seemed just a tad flustered. It almost seemed, for a second to Sam, that Max was going to hurt her, perhaps for startling him, yet the rabbit forced himself not to do it.

She then snuggled into him.

Max's eye twitched. It looked now as though Max was unable to hold himself back and was inches from hurting her.

She looked at him with her beady eyes. "Mr. Max, are you _okay_?"

Max looked at Sam and nearly growled. "Sam, something's _wrong_ with me. Get this girl off of me before I _hurt_ her."


	10. It's Always a Nightmare, Huh?

The girl looked confused as Sam made her get off of Max.

Max shuddered a little.

"You _okay_ now, Max?"

Max shook his head. "Something's really wrong with me, Sam."

"Any idea what's wrong?"

He shook his head again. The end of Sam's tie slowly ignited.

Sam yelped and quickly put the fire out on his tie.

Max looked over. "Sam? What's wrong?"

"You just lit my tie on fire!"

"What? No, I didn't. ... Did I?" Max looked a little concerned.

"Yeah, you _did_." Sam said as he showed Max his tie.

"I... I _swear_ I didn't do that on purpose, Sam. I didn't even _think_ about doing that." After Max said this, Sam faintly remembered that the tie the Max from his dream had was also burnt at the end.

Sam gulped a bit.

"Sam, why are you giving me that scared look...?" Max asked in a tiny voice.

Sam shook it off. "Never mind it, Max."

Max looked worried. "... You know, I don't think I should walk so far ahead." He muttered before walking back so that Sam would be leading the way.

Sam sighed and continued to walk.

Max stayed quiet and stared at his feet as he followed.

The rabbit girl looked back at Max.

Max didn't notice.

The rabbit girl jumped out of Sam's arms and started to walk off.

"Hey, where are you going?" Max asked as he looked at her.

"I'm causing problems for you guys..."

"No, you aren't. Something's up with me right now, that's all."

"It _is_ me. This _always_ happens when I'm near someone like me with powers..."

"That doesn't make any sense to me." Max said before he tried to read her mind to find out what she was really thinking.

In her mind he saw she was telling the truth for he saw images of others with powers lose control over them when she was around.

"But... You don't have anywhere else to stay."

"But you might hurt your friend if I stay..."

"I... I'd _never_ hurt _Sam_."

"You lit his tie on fire."

"Maybe I did, but I'd never _hurt_ him."

"I'll stay if you're sure."

"You don't have anywhere else to stay. Even if I wasn't sure, I'm certain that Sam would talk me into it. Right, Sam?"

"That's right, Max." Sam replied.

"See? So stay with us."

"Okay." she smiled.

Max turned back to Sam. "So where to, Sam?"

"Well, we need to find shelter somewhere."

"... Say, should we just return home? I mean, wouldn't they expect us to run off and hide someplace else?"

"That's a good point. Alright, we'll head there."

Max started to half-lead the way and half-wander about.

The rabbit girl walked along side of him.

Max grinned a little at her.

She giggled and smiled back at him.

She noticed the rabbit looked exhausted as if he hadn't slept in a while.

"You look like you need a nap." she said.

"Nah, I'm alright."

"You really should take a nap. I could nap with you if you want."

Max's ears stood straight up for a moment and he seemed shocked by such an offer.

"You okay, Mr. Max?"

"No one's ever asked to sleep _with_ me before."

"Really?"

Max shook his head. "You really wouldn't mind sleeping with me?"

"Really." she smiled.

Max smiled back at her. Soon they arrived at the house.

"Wow! It's big!"

Max hurried inside, excited to be home.

The rabbit girl ran inside too.

"Just the way we left it, Sam! I'm not even sure if anyone's been here!" Max said to Sam.

"It seems so, Max." Sam replied.

Max then seemed to grow serious. He looked back at the girl. "Uh, if you want, I can lead you to the bedroom."

"Okay." she said.

Max took her to the bedroom. "Sleep on either bunk."

She picked the bottom bunk.

Max smiled just a little.

"You wanna nap too?"

Max shook his head a bit. "I have something I wanna ask Sam first."

"Okay, Mr. Max."

Max stepped out of the bedroom.

Sam was looking through things at his desk.

"... Sam...?"

Sam looked at him. "Yeah?"

"What are you looking for...?"

"Just making sure no one found my candy stash. Damn it!" he cursed as he revealed it was in the desk.

"... Sam, I... I have to ask about something."

"Yeah, Max?"

"When I accidentally lit your tie on fire... You... You looked _terrified_ of me, Sam."

"I'm sorry, Max. It reminded me of my nightmare."

"... You trust me when I say I would never hurt you, right...?"

"I do."

Max hurried over and hugged Sam. "Sam, I'm a little scared..."

"We'll get through this."

"I hope so..."

Sam hugged him.

Max hugged him back a little tighter.

"We'll get through this, little buddy."

"I'll trust you, Sam..."

"And I trust you."

Max smiled.

Sam smiled.

"I love you, Sam." Max said, though he only knew half of the definition for the word ' _love_ '.

"Love you too, buddy."

Max grinned his typical grin.

Sam smiled back. "Go get some sleep. You need it."

"What are you gonna do, Sam?"

"I might get some sleep too."

"Alright. I'll go try to sleep..." Max said.

"Okay, Max."

Max returned to the bedroom.

The girl was sleeping, all curled up in a ball.

"..." Max tried to read her mind to see if she was dreaming about anything.

She was having a bad dream where her parents left her.

Max hesitantly went over and tried to shake her awake.

She awoke with a yelp.

"Hey, relax. You were having a nightmare." Max said.

"I _always_ have nightmares..." she whimpered.

Max frowned a little, but didn't know what to say.

"I have no hopes or dreams to dream about anymore..."

"That can't be true. You're just thinking too much about the bad things that have happened."

"You really think so?"

Max nodded. "I've done a ton of horrible things, and on top of it all, I lost _my_ parents too. Trust me, it'll get better."

"How did you lose your parents?"

Max shrugged. "My father was arrested and my mother was taken to an asylum. See, my family line has this history of being psychotic, deranged criminals."

"So they were _coo-coo_?"

The hyperkinetic rabbity thing nodded. "Sometimes people say that I'm crazy too because it's... uh, what word do they use... ' _hereditary_ ' or something weird like that. I dunno what that means exactly, but I don't _THINK_ I'm crazy..."

"I don't think you're crazy either."

"Really? I think even Sam would beg to differ."

"I'm sure he doesn't mean it."

Max smiled a little. "I wouldn't mind either way. Sam's really the only ' _family_ ' I have now. Even if he thought I was _completely_ crazy, as long as he still thought of me as his best buddy, I'd still be a _little_ sane."

"Can I be part of your family too?"

Max shrugged again. "I... I guess...?"

She giggled happily and hugged him. "Thank you so much!"

He awkwardly hugged her back. "You're welcome...?"

She giggled more and snuggled into him.

Max quietly let her do so, not knowing how to respond to such affection, especially not from a girl.

"I can be your little sister." she smiled.

"I guess that's alright."

She giggled more as she yawned.

Max sat her back on the bed. "Get some rest."

"Could you sleep with me?" she asked with big cute beady eyes.

"If you want." Max sat next to her.

She smiled and moved over so he could lay down.

Max did so, though he faintly trembled as if he were nervous of sleeping next to someone.

She yawned again as she slowly fell asleep.

Max started to gradually doze off as well.

She started to sleep peacefully.

Max, on the other hand, started to slip into a nightmare.

She didn't notice.

In his nightmare, Max looked around for Sam, but couldn't seem to find him, or _anyone_ for that matter, _anywhere_. "Sam...?"

He heard someone limping.

He turned toward the direction of the sound.

He saw a very bloody Sam.

"Sam...?! Sam, what _happened_?!" Max hurried over.

"S-stay away from me!" Sam yelled as he shakily raised his gun.

Max jumped a bit. "S-Sam, what are you doing? Don't shoot me, just tell me who did this to you!"

" _You're_ the one who did this!" he growled as he cocked the gun.

"Wh-what...? Sam, what happened, _really_? You're hurt bad!"

"You used your powers on me!"

"Why would I do that?" Max asked, looking horrified.

"You blamed me for the girl getting killed!"

Max froze up. "She... She's... _dead_...? What happened to her...?"

"They found us again and killed her!"

"W-we couldn't save her...?"

"They _shot her in the head_!"

"... Why would I _blame you_ for that, Sam...?"

"You left to blow up some birds and came back to find her dead!"

"... But... But where did the soldiers go...?"

"To search for _you_!"

Max clutched his head, trying not to cry. "S-Sam, I don't remember _any_ of this..."

"You still did it and now I'll _finish_ this." Sam cocked the gun again.

"Sam, please, don't _do_ this!" Max took a step back, arms out in front of him as a sign of surrender.

Just as Sam pulled the trigger, Max woke up with a start.


	11. I Remember Now

Max quickly looked to see if the girl was still there with him.

She was all curled up next to him with a smile on her face.

He climbed out of the bed, careful not to wake her, and he looked to see if Sam was asleep in the top bunk or not.

Sam was there sleeping with his mouth open.

Trembling intensely from fear of his nightmare, Max quietly climbed up onto the top bunk and managed to snuggle in next to Sam.

Sam rolled over and hugged Max in his sleep.

Max curled up in his hold, feeling a little less scared now.

Sam snuggled him a bit.

Regardless of the slight comfort he was receiving, Max started to cry a little.

Sam woke up a bit. "Max...?"

Max sniffled. "Sorry for waking you, Sam..."

"It's alright, Max. What's wrong?"

"I-I had a horrible nightmare..."

"It must've been bad if you're scared."

"You were hurt badly and you pointed your gun at me because apparently I had attacked you with my powers after I returned to find that the girl we met had been shot in the head..." Max explained quickly, holding back sobs. "A-and then you _shot_ me..."

Sam's face paled as his eyes widened. "Max, I would _never_ shoot you. True, I did threaten to before, but I would never go through with it."

Max clung to Sam. "E-even if I hurt you, Sam...?"

"Even if you hurt me, I wouldn't shoot you."

Max shrugged a bit. "I think I'd want you to shoot me if I hurt you... If I ever hurt you then we'd know for sure that I'd have gone completely insane..."

"You sure, Max?"

Max nodded. "I can't bear the thought of hurting you, Sam..."

"Same here, buddy."

Max snuggled against Sam a bit more. "Is it alright if I sleep in this bunk with you tonight, Sam...?"

"Sure, buddy."

Max smiled just a little.

Sam smiled and laid down with him.

"Goodnight, Sam..."

"Goodnight, Max."

Max started to fall asleep again.

Sam fell asleep too.

* * *

A few hours passed...

The little rabbit girl woke up a bit.

Max was still asleep in the top bunk.

She got up and decided to explore the house.

There was a ton of strange things lying around.

She looked at one of them.

It appeared to be some sort of strange, un-fueled flamethrower.

She put it back and looked around some more.

She saw tons of pictures of Sam and Max on a desk, some from when they were younger.

She hopped onto the desk and looked at them.

A couple of them showed them as kids, revealing to her that they'd been friends since early childhood.

She smiled as she looked through some more.

One of the pictures showed the two of them posed in front of a door which said on its window, "Sam & Max | Freelance Police".

She gasped. "These two are _the_ Sam and Max of the Freelance Police? Sweet!"

"We aren't Freelance Police anymore..." said Max's voice from behind her.

She gasped and looked behind her. "Why not?"

Max stood there. He stepped closer with his awkward walk, his feet lifted high and spread apart with each step. "I don't remember what I did, but I guess I did something that got Sam and I into big trouble. All I remember is attacking Geek, but then there's this giant blank gap in my memory."

"Oh man..."

"Sam was pretty pissed at me about it too. Almost threatened to shoot me."

"Yikes."

"I wish I could remember what it was that I did..."

"Hmm... Maybe your powers could help with that."

Max furrowed his brow. "Are you asking me to read my own mind?"

"Kinda. I mean like using me to project it."

"You mean you want me to try showing you the blank gap?"

"Yeah."

"I... I don't know how, but I can try..."

"Hope this works."

Max tried to show her what he couldn't remember.

She cried out as the images were projected through her eyes.

She was seeing through Max's point of view, watching him do many horrible, violent things.  
"Hey, what... What do you see?"

"You're killing mobs of people! Ripping them apart!" she cried in horror.

As she saw and told, it seemed to allow him to see what had happened, as he started to look a tad disturbed. "What else?"

"You're setting children on fire and blowing up their families! No! Don't hurt that lady that looks like Mr. Sam! _No!_ _You ripped her heart out!_ " she bawled.

" _Sam_... Where's Sam? Do you see him?" Max asked.

"Yes, he's there! He's sobbing!"

"Is... Is he hurt? Am I hurting him, or _have_ I hurt him or...?" Sam's well-being seemed to be Max's only concern.

"He's sobbing by the lady that looks like him!"

Max cut the connection between the girl and himself so she wouldn't have to see anymore.

She slumped to her knees as she trembled and sobbed.

Max looked at the hand in which he'd held the heart of the woman that looked like Sam. He then hurried back into the bedroom and checked to see if Sam was still asleep or not.

Sam was still snoring away.

Though he promised himself he'd never read Sam's mind, Max proceeded to break that promise. He tried to figure out what had happened there in Sam's view, why he'd lost his mind, and if he'd hurt Sam before or after.

He saw that he did hurt Sam really bad after killing that lady.

He tried to see what had sent him into his fit and whether or not he'd hurt Sam prior to killing the lady.

Sam was injured after the lady but Max noticed something was on him that looked like some kind of device.

Max tried to see if Sam had been able to get a better look at it.

It looked like a mechanical spider.

Max stopped reading Sam's mind and narrowed his eyes, now pondering upon the mechanical spider.

It looked kinda familiar.

Yet he couldn't figure out why.

Then he remembered that the chief had it.

Max put a hand on his head, getting a headache trying to remember that far back.

_Maybe the whole thing was a setup._

Still, Max had hurt Sam bad. He climbed back up onto the top bunk and tried to wake Sam up.

Sam slowly woke up. "H-huh..?"

"S-Sam..." Max couldn't help but cry a little.

"Max, what's wrong?"

"I-I... I know what I did... before..."

Sam quickly sat up. "You do?"

Max nodded.

Sam hugged him.

"I can't believe I hurt you, Sam..."

"It's in the past, Max."

"Sam, why'd I do all of that...?"

"Wish I knew, little buddy."

"I... Sam, there... There was a woman..."

Sam was silent.

"You looked really crushed when I ripped her heart out, and after I did that, I hurt you pretty bad..." As Max said this, he resumed staring at the hand in which he'd held the heart of the woman the looked like Sam.

"She was my girlfriend..." Sam said softly.

Max seemed to freeze up a bit. "... Girlfriend...?" He narrowed his eyes as if he'd never heard the term.

Sam explained what a girlfriend was.

Max narrowed his beady eyes more. "Looks like I saved you from a lot of trouble then." He said in a rather heartless tone as he jumped off of the bunk bed. "I have to go ask Geek some questions." He sounded cold as he said this, as if something about Sam having had a girlfriend had stung him.

Sam's ears drooped as he looked down.

Max looked back at him. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing... Go."

"I think you're _lying_ to me, Sam." Max stated before he started trying to read Sam's mind to figure out what he was hiding.

Sam blocked his mind. "You promised you would never do that to me."

"How do you think I know about how I hurt you, Sam? At least now I know why I did." He nearly snarled the last part.

Sam shook his head. "This is why I didn't tell you what you did. The truth changed you."

"The _hell_ it did!" Max shouted. It actually sort of looked like he was going to cry. "I'm going to go ask Geek if she knows anything about that mechanical spider, and I'll _kill_ whoever gets in my damned way!"

"Mechanical spider? That's what I saw on you?"

"I don't friggin' know! It kinda looked like a spider, but hell if I know what it really is or why it was on me like that!"

Sam jumped from his tone.

What remained of Max's composure broke, and he ran out of the room crying.

Sam reached out for him before sighing and letting his hand fall.


	12. The Realization

Max ran past the girl, and out of the house.

The girl followed him. "Mr. Max, what's wrong?" she called out.

Max gradually slowed down, crying a little harder now that he was out of Sam's view.

"Mr. Max?"

Max sniffled. "It's nothing. Sam and I just had a bit of an argument... Just go back into th-..." Max thought about his nightmare. "Uh, actually... Do you want to come with me? I have to go back to the hospital to ask Geek a few questions..."

"Okay." she smiled.

Max headed to the hospital with her.

Geek was in bed typing on her laptop.

Max knocked on the door. "Geek...?"

She gasped and shut her laptop. "Get out before I call security!" she cried.

"Wait! I'm not here to hurt you again!" Max put his hands up awkwardly to show surrender.

"Then what do you want?"

"I need to ask you why I went on a rampage and if you know anything about a mechanical spider."

"Of course I know about the spider. I built it for the chief but he didn't tell me why he wanted it."

"... Th-this spider... What did it do, exactly?"

"Well, it's used to... control someone. That bastard used it on you!" she gasped.

"It was all a setup..." Max started panicking a little. "I have to go tell Sam."

"Hurry before they get to him!" Geek cried.

Max ran out of the room, pulling the rabbit girl along as he ran back home with her.

The girl yelped as she ran along side him.

Once home, Max practically kicked the door open and let go of her. " _Sam!_ "

He gasped as he saw Sam laying on the floor all bloody.

Max took a shaky step further into the house, staring with wide eyes at Sam. "... S-... S-Sam...?"

Sam groaned weakly as he opened his eyes.

Max rushed to his side and knelt next to him. "Sam, what happened?!"

"Th-they came ba-back..."

"I-I've gotta... I've gotta get you to the hospital...!"

Sam weakly nodded.

Max teleported him to the hospital, only to be greeted by a fleet of soldiers who knew that bringing Sam here would be the first thing on his mind.

"M-Max... R-run..."

"Run and the dog gets it." One of the soldiers said.  
"N-no... No, please, don't hurt Sam anymore...!" Max begged as he snuggled into Sam, sobbing. He wasn't going anywhere so long as they kept threatening to hurt Sam.

"M-Max..." Sam teared up.

The soldiers grabbed Max and put handcuffs on him, meanwhile he just kept crying against Sam.  
"If I just let you bastards have me, will you leave Sam alone...?" He asked them.  
They agreed halfheartedly.

"P-please, don't take my b-buddy..." Sam weakly begged.

"Sam, everything I did before?!" Max called out as they started to tug him away. "I couldn't remember it because that _wasn't me!_ I was under the chief's control because Geek made him a little sp-" A hand clamped around Max's face, shutting him up as he was dragged out.

Tears fell as Sam slowly passed out.

* * *

When he awoke, he had been treated to the best of the doctors' abilities.

The rabbit girl was curled up next to him fast asleep.

Max was, of course, nowhere to be found.

Sam hung his head in sadness as he blamed himself for Max getting captured.

It seemed that if he wanted to get Max back again, he'd have to start with questioning Geek.

But Sam was too injured to go see her.

Maybe the rabbit girl could go and ask her things.

She seemed to know what he was thinking and ran out to talk to Geek.

For a second, Geek thought the girl was Max, but was left confused when she saw that she was wrong. "Oh... Hello?"

"Hi. I'm a friend of Mr. Max's. The mean men hurt Mr. Sam and took Mr. Max away."

"That's horrible!"

"Mr. Max tried to tell something important to Mr. Sam but was taken away before he could."

"Do you have any idea what he was trying to tell Sam?"

"All I heard was he said it was a setup and that it wasn't him."

"... I can tell Sam more if he needs to know anything..."

"He does. He needs to know what Mr. Max was talking about."

Geek got out of the bed and weakly managed to make it to Sam's room.

Sam looked over at her. "Geek..."

"I heard what happened..." She said in a sympathetic voice.

"Yeah and it's all my fault..."

"Don't be so hard on yourself..." Geek sat in a chair next to the bed. "I also heard that he was trying to tell you something before those bastards took him away?"

"Yes, he was saying you made something?"

Geek sighed. "The chief asked me to make something that could be used to control someone. He didn't tell me what he was going to use it for, and I wasn't going to argue. Had I known what he was going to do with it, which was apparently use it on Max, I wouldn't have made it..."

"You mean the chief was behind this whole thing?!" he growled.

"It seems so."

"But why?"

Geek shrugged. "That's just it. I'm not sure."

"I want to help Max but I'm too injured."

"It looks like Max might have to wait, then... We'll just have to hope that he'll be okay."

"I can help!" the rabbit girl chimed in.

Geek looked at her. "I don't know if it's safe for you to go alone..."

The girl made an ice ball in her hand. "I can handle myself."

"If you're sure... I'm just worried that if they've used the spider on Max before, they might use it on him again. It was never really tested for a second use on someone, and it was fairly simple in design so they could've duplicated it..."

"I'll be careful."

"Well... If you're ready, you'd better hurry." Geek told her where the nearest military base was. "They might not keep him there for very long, though."

She nodded and went on her way.


	13. Hallucinating

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is for you, NebulaeMika.

At this rate, it was going to take her too long to get there.  
  
She found a bike and took it.  
  
She'd have to really hurry.  
  
She pedalled with all her might.  
  
Soon she made it to the base.  
  
She snuck in.  
  
She could hear something loud going on in a different section of the base.  
  
She walked towards it.  
  
Peering in, she saw a crowd of soldiers watching Max test and strengthen his abilities.  
  
She tried to get closer.  
  
She could see Max rip through steel with his telekinesis and teeth alone. The soldiers were incredibly impressed, but they weren't finished with him. They had Max destroy cut out targets of people, and he did so until one of Sam popped up, at which point he hesitated.  
"What's the matter? Finish the task." A voice ordered.  
Max seemed to be trying to resist, and he let out a scream as he destroyed the target of Sam.  
  
The girl gasped silently.  
  
They ran Max through this sort of loop, and every time Max destroyed Sam's target after hesitating, they'd say something bad about Sam. Soon, Max was destroying all of the targets, even Sam's, without even a moment's hesitation.  
  
'I've got to tell Mr. Sam!' she panickly thought.  
  
The soldiers applauded Max and decided to be kind enough to let him take a break as they all left him on his own in his sealed off little containment area.  
  
She waited until they left and ran over to the unit. "Mr. Max!" she whispered.  
  
He looked at her a little. He looked broken and exhausted, but he didn't do anything but look at her.  
  
"I'm here to get you outta here!"  
  
Max said nothing. He silently teleported next to her, and alarms started to go off.  
  
She panicked and ran with him.  
  
He let her lead the way.  
  
She led him to Sam's hospital room.  
  
Geek was still there, and she gasped to see Max. "You got him out?!"  
It seemed Sam was the only one who could notice something wrong with Max, sort of like a lacking of emotion in his eyes.  
  
"Something's wrong, Geek... I think they broke him..." Sam said sadly.  
  
"... Max?" Geek took the risk of waving her hand in front of Max's face. Max looked at her for a moment, but then turned his gaze to Sam. Something like faint recognition could be seen in his eyes.  
  
"Max, it's me Sam; your best buddy."  
  
"... S-... Sam...?" It looked like it was taking Max a lot of effort to speak.  
  
"Yes it's me, Max."  
  
Max seemed uncomfortable. "S-Sam... g-get..."  
  
"Get what?"  
  
"G-get away!!" Max shouted as he lunged at Sam, bearing his sharp teeth.  
  
Sam couldn't dodge since he was too injured.  
  
Geek stood, but Max couldn't bring himself to bite Sam. He shook his head at something and fell off of the bed, curling up there.  
  
"Mr. Max?"  
  
"I-I can't... S-Sam, ... Sp-Spider...!" The lagomorph choked out as he kept trying to resist the urge to kill Sam.  
  
The rabbit girl looked for it.  
  
Geek helped too, but neither of them could find it.  
"Max, I can't see it on you anywhere. Where is it?"  
Max shakily gestured around the back of his neck.  
  
The girl looked there.  
  
She still couldn't see anything.  
  
But she did see part of his neck stitched up. "It's under his skin!"  
  
"We have to get it out!" Geek shouted.  
  
The girl thought for a moment then got an idea. She created a long, sharp icicle. "We'll use this!"  
  
Max suddenly melted it with his powers.  
  
"Oh no!" she cried.  
  
Max stood and growled at all three of them, making Geek stumble back.  
  
The girl froze him from the neck down.  
  
He used his pyrokinesis to free himself.  
  
Max didn't realize he was standing in a puddle of water due to the ice. "I'm sorry, Mr. Max, but I have to do this!" Electricity crackled around her as she stepped in the puddle; zapping him.  
  
He cried out and collapsed.  
  
She stopped her power. "Geek, cut it out now!" Sam yelled and tossed her his pocketknife.  
  
Max jumped backwards, using his powers to smash the window as he threw himself out.  
  
"Mr. Max, wait!" the girl cried as she ran after him.  
  
Max fled from her.  
  
She ran after him.  
  
He ran through a busy street, jumping over oncoming cars.  
  
She kept following him.  
  
A car didn't stop in time and almost hit her. As if sensing this, Max whipped around and forced the car to stop using his telekinesis, narrowly saving her.  
  
The girl just stood there terrified that she was almost ran over.  
  
Max threw the car away from her and resumed running.  
  
She shook her head and ran after him again.  
  
He soon started setting random people on fire as he ran.  
  
She put them out with her ice.  
  
He soon tripped.  
  
She hurried to him.  
  
He tried to light her on fire.  
  
She froze him instead and zapped him.  
  
Max yelled in pain.  
  
She then made ice claws and dug out the spider.  
  
Max screamed and struggled, but once the spider was out, he stopped and slumped back to the ground.  
  
"Mr. Max...?"  
  
He appeared to be unconscious, but she couldn't tell.  
  
She gently picked him up and carried him back to the hospital.  
  
Geek was outside waiting for them. "Are you two okay?"  
  
"I am but I had to zap Mr. Max."  
  
She noticed how still he was. "... Is... Is he...?"  
  
"He's breathing."  
  
She sighed in relief.  
  
"And I got the spider out too."  
  
"Do you still have it?"  
  
She gave it to her.  
  
Geek examined it. "It looks like they made some adjustments..."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"This definitely isn't the same spider. I can tell."  
  
"So they messed with your design? The meanies!"  
  
"I won't know exactly what they did to it until I get a chance to get a better look at it."  
  
The girl nodded.  
  
"Come on, we'd better get Max back to Sam."  
  
The girl nodded again and went in with her.  
  
Max groaned a little.  
  
"How is he?" asked Sam.  
  
"Well..." Geek shrugged. "He's... alive, to say the least."  
  
"Is the spider out?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"That's good."  
  
"It's just that they messed with the design a little. I need to look it over to figure out just what they did to it."  
  
"If anyone can figure it out, it's you, Geek."  
  
Geek smiled a little.  
  
Sam smiled back and gently took Max, laying him on the bed to rest.  
  
Max curled up beside him.  
  
Sam smiled and gently covered him with a blanket.  
  
Max snuggled against the blanket a little. Geek thought it was a little cute, but said nothing.  
  
"I'll watch him while you work."  
  
"Okay."  
  
Sam watched over Max.  
  
Geek left to go examine the spider. Eventually, Max opened his eyes a bit.  
  
"Hey, buddy."  
  
"S-Sam...?"  
  
"Yes it's me, Max."  
  
"Oh, good..." He said in a tired voice. "I guess I didn't hurt you..."  
  
"The girl stopped you before you could."  
  
"She's a real miracle, ain't she, Sam..."  
  
"She really is."  
  
Max started to doze off.  
  
"Get some sleep. You deserve it."  
  
Max soon fell asleep.  
  
Sam smiled and gently covered him with the blanket.  
  
He snuggled against it.  
  
Sam smiled more and laid down too.  
  
Max ended up cuddling against him somewhat.  
  
Sam didn't mind and fell asleep.  
  
He started to have another weird dream.  
  
He looked around a bit.  
  
It seemed he was back at the house.  
  
He started to walk around.  
  
He found that Max was asleep in the bed.  
  
Sam sighed a bit.  
  
Within the blink of an eye, Max was suddenly gone. The bed looked untouched.  
  
"Huh?" Sam looked around.  
  
He thought he saw Max in the living room.  
  
He walked into the living room.  
  
Max wasn't there.  
  
He looked around confused.  
  
He couldn't tell if Max was messing with him or if he was hallucinating.  
  
He started to look in all the rooms for him.  
  
Every time he thought he saw him, the rabbit would disappear.  
  
"Disappearing on me!" he yelled.  
  
"... Sam?" A voice from behind him said.  
  
Sam slowly turned around to look.  
  
It was Geek. She held a bag of groceries. "Who... Who are you talking to?"  
  
"Max keeps disappearing on me every time I come to the room he's in."  
  
Geek's face paled a little.  
  
"Geek, what's wrong?"  
  
"Sam... Max... Max has been gone for a long time..."  
  
"Wh-what...?"  
  
"Don't you remember? The commissioner had him executed..."  
  
Sam's face paled.  
  
"I thought you'd got over it by now..."  
  
Sam slumped to his knees. "So what was I seeing..?"  
  
"Maybe you still miss him... Before, you were hallucinating his presence. Always talking like he was still here..."  
  
"Is the girl still here?"  
  
Geek slowly shook her head.  
  
"Is she...?"  
  
"... She... She was killed a little before Max was. Max lost his mind when he found out, which... which is why he was killed."  
  
Sam slumped more.  
  
"I'm sorry, Sam..."  
  
"I lost them..."  
  
Geek put the groceries down and gently hugged Sam. "We all miss them, Sam..."  
  
Sam hugged back as he cried.  
  
Geek tried to comfort him. "Let it all out..."  
  
He sobbed more.  
  
Geek continued to comfort him.  
  
Soon he stopped crying.  
  
"Are you going to be okay?"  
  
"I'll have to be..."  
  
Geek let out a small sigh.  
  
"Why didn't I stop them from getting killed...?"  
  
"The girl's death was out of the blue... Max attacked you after he found out because there was a misunderstanding... You two got into an argument afterwards, and... well, that was the last you two saw of each other, to my knowledge..."  
  
"So it was my fault...."  
  
"How so?" Geek raised a brow.  
  
"He took off after our fight..."  
  
"His death wasn't your fault, Sam."  
  
"Well, I feel like it was."  
  
"I don't think he'd want you to feel that way."  
  
"I know..." he sighed.  
  
Geek stood and picked up the bag of groceries. "I'm going to go put these away."  
  
"Okay..."  
  
Geek left the room, leaving Sam alone.  
"Hey, Sam!" Max's voice, obviously a hallucination, sounded from behind him.  
  
Sam slowly looked with tears in his eyes.  
  
He saw no one, and the voice stopped.  
  
He slumped down and cried.  
  
"Sam... Sam, why won't you look at me?" Max's voice said.  
  
"Because you're really not there... You're dead..."  
  
"... S-Sam... Sam, come on. Put your gun away - I didn't mean to attack you if that's why you're so upset!"  
  
Sam looked. "I'm not holding my gun."  
  
"Sam, don't do this!" Shortly after, Sam heard a faint gunshot, and Max let out a quick yelp.  
Was he hearing what had happened? Had he shot Max?  
  
The tears were now streaming down his face as he held his head. "I killed him..." he sobbed.  
  
Geek came back into the room. "Sam..." She sighed sadly at the sight of him crying again.  
  
"I shot him... I shot him..."  
  
"... Sam, what... What are you talking about...?"  
  
"I shot him while we argued..."  
  
Geek fell silent.  
  
"You knew... didn't you..?"  
  
"... I..."  
  
"You knew..."  
  
"I wasn't supposed to tell you..."  
  
"Who told you to do that?"  
  
"The doctors at the hospital... Sam, you were so depressed, and... they were just worried that unless you repressed the memories, you might..." She trailed off.  
  
"Want to end it all...?"  
  
Geek let out a small sigh.  
  
"I won't do it..."  
  
"I hope you won't..."  
  
Sam sighed.  
  
So did Geek.  
  
"What can I do now...?"  
  
"I'm not sure..."  
  
Sam sighed as he slumped into a chair.  
  
A sort of awkward silence filled the air between them.  
  
Then Sam heard giggling.  
  
"Sam?" Geek noticed that he seemed distracted by something.  
  
"I heard giggling..."  
  
"I didn't hear anything..."  
Sam felt breathing on the back of his neck.  
  
Sam slowly turned around.  
  
"Hello." He heard. "Look up."  
  
He looked up.  
  
The rabbit girl, covered in blood and baring her sharp teeth much like Max's, lunged at him.  
  
Sam screamed and fell back.  
  
"Sam?!" Geek hurried over to him.  
  
"The girl just attacked me!" he yelled.  
  
"Sam, relax! There's nothing there!"  
  
"What are you talking about? She's right there!!"  
  
"I don't see anyone."  
  
"But she's there!"  
  
"She's not, Sam. Relax."  
  
"Yes, she is!"  
  
"Just close your eyes for a moment, Sam. I'm sure she'll go away."  
  
Sam closed his eyes and then opened them again.  
  
The girl's lifeless eyes were inches from his own.  
  
Sam screamed as he backed up quick.  
  
Her hands shot for his throat.  
  
He ducked and ran.  
  
"Sam!" Geek ran after him.  
  
"Stay away!!" he yelled.  
  
"Sam, relax! You might hurt yourself!"  
  
Sam ran faster.  
  
"Sam!!"  
  
"Leave me alone!"  
  
"Sam, wait up!!" Now it was Max screaming for him to stop.  
  
Sam skidded to a stop and looked.  
  
Max was there, and he stopped behind Sam. "Geez, Sam! Why'd you run like that?"  
  
"The rabbit girl was trying to attack me."  
  
Max seemed confused. "Rabbit girl? What rabbit girl?"  
  
"The girl we took in."  
  
"We never took in any girl, Sam."  
  
Sam's face paled. "Then who..?"  
  
Max shrugged. "I dunno what you're talking about."  
  
"I really am going nuts..."  
  
Max jumped up onto Sam, messing with his ear a little. "Sam, what's going on? You've been acting strange all day."  
  
"Geek told me you were dead.."  
  
Max raised a brow. "... Uh-huh..."  
  
"And then I thought I killed you.."  
  
"Just relax, Sam. Everything will be fine."  
  
Sam smiled a bit.  
  
In the blink of an eye, Max was gone.  
  
"Max?" Sam looked around.  
  
Geek was there instead. "Sam, you tried to run, and you tripped. Are you alright?"  
  
"Yeah I guess."  
  
"Come on back inside."  
  
He nodded and went in.  
  
"Maybe you should rest, Sam..."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Max appeared behind him. "Going to sleep so soon, Sam?"  
  
"Yeah. I need some rest."  
  
"Alright."  
  
Sam laid down on the bed and closed his eyes.  
  
At that point, he awoke from the dream.


	14. Max Goes Delusional

He looked around.  
  
Max was snuggled against him, still asleep.  
  
The rabbit girl was asleep too, all snuggled with them.  
  
They were still in the hospital.  
  
Sam smiled as he watched them sleep.  
  
Max started to wake up a little.  
  
Sam stayed still.  
  
"S-Sam...?"  
  
"I'm here, Max."  
  
Max smiled a little.  
  
"The girl's here too."  
  
"Oh, good..."  
  
"Geek's studying the spider."  
  
Max grunted a quiet "Okay..."  
  
The rabbit girl started to wake up.  
  
Max didn't notice.  
  
She opened her eyes and saw Max. "Max! You're okay!" she cheered and hugged him.  
  
He timidly hugged her back.  
  
"I was so scared I hurt you bad with my zaps!"  
  
"Hell, I've been zapped worse than that before..." Max chuckled a little.  
  
The girl giggled. "Oh! I never told you guys my name, did I?"  
  
"I don't think so..."  
  
"It's Sophia."  
  
"Nice name..."  
  
"I like your name a lot better." Sophia said.  
  
Max wasn't entirely sure how to respond, so he just smiled.  
  
She happily hugged Max more.  
  
Max looked at Sam.  
  
Sam smiled a bit.  
  
Max looked back at Sophia.  
  
Sophia cutely smiled at him.  
  
Max grinned a little.  
  
"Too bad you guys aren't the Freelance Police anymore. I would love to be a Junior Freelance Police with you."  
  
Max snickered a bit.  
  
Sam chuckled as well. "Looks like we inspired someone, Max."  
  
"All in a day's work, Sam..."  
  
Sophia giggled then thought for a moment. "I would need someone to be my Sam though."  
  
Max shrugged.  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"For now, I just have you guys as my big brothers." Sophia smiled.  
  
Max looked back at Sam. "... Sam...?"  
  
"Yeah, Max?" Sam replied.  
  
"Is... Is this what a family is...?"  
  
"One type of family; yes."  
  
Max grinned widely.  
  
Sam smiled as Sophia giggled happily and hugged both of them.  
  
Max hugged her back.  
  
She cutely purred.  
  
"Come on, Sam, get in on the hug..."  
  
Sam smiled and hugged her too as she purred more.  
  
Max was starting to doze off again since he was still sort of weak, but he tried to stay awake.  
  
"Get some sleep. You need the rest."  
  
"Alright..."  
  
"I'll stay with you while you sleep." Sophia said.  
  
Max grinned a little again and tried to fall asleep.  
  
She snuggled with him.  
  
The lagomorph drifted off.  
  
Sophia fell asleep with him.  
  
Geek stepped in soon afterwards.  
  
"What's the scoop, Geek?" asked Sam.  
  
"It's... It's not good, Sam."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I looked at the spider, and... This might sound stupid without further explanation, but I don't think we should have taken it out of Max."  
  
"This has something to do with what the Chief added to the spider, doesn't it?"  
  
"Well, I wouldn't really know. I'm just saying this because... well... It kind of got loose."  
  
"It got loose? I thought it was fried!"  
  
"So did I..."  
  
"We have to find it!"  
  
"I don't know where it went, though!"  
  
"We just have to look everywhere then!"  
  
"I'll start looking, then." Geek hurried out.  
  
Sam started looking as well.  
  
As he looked, he heard little noises behind him every so often.  
  
He looked behind him.  
  
He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary... However, the second he turned his back again, he felt something light jump onto the back of his neck.  
  
He reached for it.  
  
Before he could grab it, he felt it dig into the back of his neck, and soon after, a feeling of cloudiness started to take over his mind.  
  
He yelped a bit and staggered a little.  
  
Max started to wake up a little. "Mmn... Sam...?"  
  
Sam fought against the spider's control as it made his hand go for his gun.  
  
Max got out of the bed and walked towards him, yawning a bit.  
  
"M-Max...! St-stay away from m-me...!!" he strained to say as his hand raised the gun.  
  
Max's beady eyes widened and he took a step back. "Sam? What's going on?"  
  
"Spi... Spi-spider..!" he choked out as he made his gun barely miss Max.  
  
Max continued backing up slowly. "Try to fight it, Sam! Where's Geek?"  
  
"W-went out..!" he cried as he fought against the spider.  
  
"I'll be right back with her!" Max ran out.  
  
"H-hurry...!!"  
  
Max ran around, searching frantically for Geek.  
  
He soon found her searching in some bushes.  
  
"Geek! Geek!!"  
  
"Huh? Max? What's wrong?" she asked.  
  
"The spider is on Sam!"  
  
She gasped. "Let's go!"  
  
Max turned and started running back to Sam.  
  
When they returned, they found Sam choking Sophia.  
  
"Sam, no!" Max leaped up and hesitantly bit Sam's arm.  
  
Sam yelped in pain and dropped the girl.  
  
Max quickly released Sam's arm. "Come on, Sam! Keep your eyes on me!"  
  
Sam growled and grabbed Max's ears, lifting him off the ground.  
  
"You can do better than that, Sam."  
  
He then pulled on them, trying to rip them off.  
  
"Cut it out, Sam! You're going to make me *lose my head*! Hee hee!"  
  
He growled more and pulled harder.  
  
Max started trying to kick at Sam, but from where he was being held, his legs weren't long enough to reach. Geek slid with her back along the wall until she was behind Sam, then she jumped up onto his back.  
  
Sam grunted and dropped Max, trying to get Geek off him.  
  
"Sam, no! Stay focused on me!" Max tried to distract him as Geek reached for the back of Sam's neck.  
  
Sam growled and grabbed Max by the throat.  
  
Max choked a little. Geek used her fingers to dig into the back of Sam's neck, trying to rip the spider out.  
  
Sam yelped as the spider was ripped out and he collapsed to the floor, dropping Max.  
  
Max quickly went to his side. "Sam?"  
  
He groaned as he opened his eyes. "M-Max..? What happened..?"  
  
"The spider got control over you." Max grinned before speaking again. "I distracted you, and so Geek was able to get the spider out of you."  
  
Sam looked over at Sophia still laying on the floor as his eyes widened. "Oh no... What have I done...?"  
  
Max slowly got up and went over to Sophia. He stood there for a moment before he gently shook her. "Hey... Hey, wake up."  
  
She moaned weakly as she slowly opened her eyes.  
  
Max grinned again and looked back at Sam. "Sorry about the bite on your arm, Sam. I had to stop you from choking her out somehow." He said casually.  
  
"I could've killed her and you..." Sam said.  
  
"And I could've killed everyone when I had the spider. Hell, I'm probably still liable to kill everyone. Your point, Sam?"  
  
"I'm not like you, Max..."  
  
Max's grin disappeared. "What do you mean by that?"  
  
"Well, you're able to let something like this not bother you. But I can't... I can't forgive myself for what I almost did."  
  
"Sam, it wasn't your fault. That stupid spider's the reason why you went a little loopy."  
  
"I still feel bad..."  
  
"Come on, Sam. It's too late to mope about it. It's like you told me, isn't it? 'It's in the past'?"  
  
Sam smiled a bit. "You're right, little buddy."  
  
Max's grin returned to his face.  
  
Sam smiled more.  
  
Max looked back at Sophia.  
  
She was having a hard time to breathe.  
  
The lagomorph looked at Sam for a moment with what appeared to be a look of fear or worry, and then he rushed to her. "Hey! Come on, breathe! You're fine, right? You're fine!"  
Geek, still holding tightly onto the spider, started to back towards the door. "I'll go get a doctor."  
  
Sophia whimpered weakly.  
  
"Hang in there!"  
Geek ran out of the room, rushing to find a doctor.  
  
Sam's ears drooped sadly.  
  
Max tried to help Sophia breathe, but he had absolutely no idea what he was doing, so he only ended up making it more difficult for her.  
  
She had tears in her eyes as she tried to breathe.  
  
Max looked at Sam again. "Sam!" He cried out helplessly. " I messed up! Help her!"  
  
Sam couldn't bring himself to do anything, being afraid he'd make things worse.  
  
"Sam!!"  
  
He gulped and went over, helping Sophia sit up and having her head looking straight ahead. She started to breathe a bit easier.  
  
Max watched quietly, wondering what was taking Geek so long.  
  
Then she ran in with a doctor.  
  
The doctor quickly took Sophia into another room.  
  
"Please be okay..." Sam prayed.  
  
"Sam... Why did you hesitate to help her...?" Max asked in a small voice.  
  
"I was afraid I was going to make things worse..."  
  
"I was the one who made things worse. I could have killed her if you didn't take over."  
  
"Well, all we can do now is to hope for the best..."  
  
"You know, Sam, it'd really suck if she was afraid of us now because of this."  
  
"Yeah, it would."  
  
"... I'm sure she'll get over it... She'll get over it, right, Sam?" Max looked up at Sam, waiting for an answer.  
  
"I hope so."  
  
"... You know, Sam, you should choke people out more often. It seems pretty effective." Max joked, not realizing that his idea of a joke was actually a tad insensitive.  
  
Sam's ears drooped sadly.  
  
Max didn't seem to notice. "I mean, you nearly choked me out too! You had even me at your mercy! It makes me wonder why you even use a gun." He grinned as he said this.  
  
Sam felt worse.  
  
"... Sam, why aren't you smiling? Isn't this the part where you tell me how I crack you up?"  
  
"That wasn't funny..."  
  
"It wasn't?" Max averted his eyes. "I still think it was pretty funny..."  
  
"I didn't... It made me feel worse..."  
  
Max fell silent.  
  
"I could have killed you two..."  
  
"I could have done the same to you when the spider had control over me and my powers."  
  
"I know..."  
  
"I could have killed you because of that spider twice now! I'm just happy it's over with and that I didn't kill you. I'm not moping over what could have happened over what did happen."  
  
"That's true."  
  
"So cheer up, Sam. The only thing you have to worry about now is the soldiers that are approaching this room as we speak!"  
  
"That's the last thing we need."  
  
"I'm not kidding, Sam." Max said through his teeth.  
  
"You mean they really are coming?!"  
  
Max nodded.  
  
"Damn it! We're going to make our stand here! Sophia is too injured to go anywhere right now!" Sam yelled as he got out his gun.  
  
Max pulled out his luger from wherever he kept it and seemed to stare at it as if deciding whether or not he needed it. Footsteps could be heard from out in the hall.  
  
"Get ready, Max! Here they come!"  
  
When two figures appeared at the doorway, Max immediately shot at them. With a few little "pok" noises from his small luger, he'd managed to injure two nurses, who had been coming in to check on Sam.  
  
"Stop firing, Max! You just shot nurses!" Sam cried as he rushed to the nurses' aid.  
  
"I... I don't understand. They were just..." Max's ears perked up. "They tricked me!" He rushed out of the room and started shooting more.  
  
Sam want to go stop Max but he had to help the injured nurses so he did his best to treat their wounds.  
  
It seemed like they'd need professional medical treatment of their own, but they'd live.  
  
He got the doctor there to help them.  
  
Max kept shooting, and, at some point, dropped his luger and started using his powers and teeth on his "enemies".  
  
Sam ran after him. "Max, stop!"  
  
Max looked over quickly. At that point, he'd already injured a ton of people, and even killed a few. "Sam?"  
  
"Oh my god... Max, what have you done?!"  
  
Max looked around. He didn't seem fazed by the death and injuries around him. "I'm confused, Sam. Those aren't the people I attacked. I was attacking soldiers."  
  
"No, you didn't, Max... You attacked and killed innocent people..."  
  
Max looked over in the direction of a wounded young girl who had picked up his luger and was now shakily aiming it at him.  
"See, Sam? There's still one more soldier. I'll take care of him." He jumped at the girl, teeth bared and ready to bite her.  
  
"MAX, NO!!!" Sam yelled and punched Max off of her.  
  
Max stopped himself from snarling at Sam when he noticed the girl. "No... She... She was just a... It's a disguise! It must be!" He started reading the girl's mind, forcing himself into her thoughts so deeply that she seemed to be put into immense pain by it. "I'll find it! I'll find proof that she's a disguise and that she's really a soldier! I'll find it somewhere!!"  
  
"Stop it, Max! You're hurting her!!"  
  
Max gave up and just sort of slumped to his knees.  
  
Sam gently picked up the wounded girl. "Are you alright...?" he asked.  
  
She shook her head feverishly. She'd been hurt bad, possibly even mortally by the looks of it.  
  
Sam's ears drooped as he ran to the nearest hospital to get her some help.  
  
Unfortunately, the doctors weren't able to help her.  
  
Sam hung his in sadness.  
  
Max hadn't followed him to the hospital.  
  
Sam left the hospital and looked for Max.  
  
He couldn't find him anywhere.  
  
He sighed and walked back to the house.  
  
Along the way, he saw Max, but the second their eyes met, Max seemed to panic and teleported away.  
  
Sam wondered why Max was scared of him.  
  
There wasn't a clear answer to that.  
  
He tried to find him again.


	15. Not-So-Maternal Instinct

He'd have to think... Where would Max go?  
  
He realized where he would be and went there.  
  
He ended up at a Stuckey's. He could see Max on the roof of the shop, curled up on his side with his back facing Sam.  
  
"Max?"  
  
Max looked over quickly and was clearly about to teleport away again.  
  
"Max, wait! Why are you teleporting away from me?"  
  
Max stopped for a minute. "... You're mad at me, aren't you, Sam...?"  
  
"A bit. Why did you go and do what you did?"  
  
"I already told you, Sam... They were soldiers..."  
  
"They weren't soldiers. They were innocent people and some of them died, including that poor girl."  
  
"But... B-but they really were soldiers! Then I hurt them, and... suddenly they weren't. I thought I was protecting you by hurting them, Sam..."  
  
"You caused more harm than anything, Max. But that's just how you are at times."  
  
Max looked at Sam quietly.  
  
"Come on. Let's get back."  
  
"Huh...? Sam, you... You forgive me...?"  
  
"Max, you're my best buddy. Of course I do."  
  
Max teleported down from the roof and ran over to hug Sam.  
  
He opened his arms to him.  
  
Max clung to him.  
  
Sam hugged him tight.  
  
"I'm sorry, Sam..."  
  
"I forgive you, Max."  
  
Max smiled.  
  
Sam smiled back.  
  
As they walked on, Max saw soldiers here and there, but didn't say anything to Sam, as he couldn't be sure if they were actually soldiers or not.  
  
Soon they got back to the house.  
  
"I wonder if Sophia's okay." Max mumbled.  
  
"I'm sure she is."  
  
"I don't think we should tell her what I did just a little while ago..."  
  
"Agreed."  
  
"... You don't think she'll be afraid of us because of how we both accidentally nearly killed her... do you?"  
  
"I really hope she isn't."  
  
"Only one way to find out..."  
  
Max stepped behind Sam, not willing to go inside first.  
  
Sam walked into Sophia's room as she looked up at him and smiled a bit.  
  
Max slowly peaked out from behind Sam.  
  
Sophie smiled more and tried to say something but a squeak came out instead as her ears drooped.  
  
Max seemed to gain a little self-confidence with her smile as he stepped out from behind Sam. "Hey, are you okay?" He asked, not understanding the squeak.  
  
She squeaked again as she teared up. "I'm afraid her voicebox was damaged when she was choked.." the doctor said sadly.  
  
Max, who didn't seem too fazed by this information, looked up at Sam.  
  
Sam stood there in shock. "She can't talk because of what I did to her..."  
  
"Oh." Max looked in no general direction. "Well... That's unfortunate, I guess. I feel strangely apathetic about this, Sam. Is that normal?"  
  
Sam didn't say anything. He was too in shock about he did to Sophia.  
  
Max took the silence as a 'no', but his only response to it was a strange grin, as if he'd had a malicious idea of some sort.  
  
Sophia had her arms out, wanting a hug from them.  
  
Max gave her a half-hearted hug and looked back at Sam.  
  
Sam shook his head and left the room sadly.  
  
Max let go of Sophia and ran out after Sam. "Sam!"  
  
"I need to be alone, Max..."  
  
"Sam... I-..." Max quietly went back into Sophia's room, respecting Sam's request.  
  
Sophia was crying silently.  
  
Max slowly went over to her. "Hey, why are you crying?" He blinked. "Oh, right. You can't talk. Uh, I'll just read your mind to get the answer." He tried to read her mind.  
  
"Sam won't hug me..." she thought sadly.  
  
"Hey..." Max held her hand timidly. "He won't hug you because he's ashamed of himself. It doesn't have anything to do with you."  
  
"But it wasn't his fault! It was the spider's!"  
  
"I know, and I've tried to tell him that, but he just can't accept that for some reason. To be honest, I'm worried about him more than I probably should be because of this."  
  
"That's because you and him are best friends and partners." she smiled.  
  
"... Yeah." Max looked in the direction of where Sam had been and used his powers to check if he was still there.  
  
Sam was still there.  
  
Max looked back at Sophia.  
  
Sophia sighed a bit.  
  
"It'll be alright. He just needs some time, I guess."  
  
"Okay, Max."  
  
Max smiled a little.  
  
She hugged him.  
  
He hugged back, checking again to make sure that Sam wasn't running off on his own.  
  
Sam was still there.  
  
Max let out a brief sigh.  
  
"He's still there?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Sophia smiled a bit.  
  
Max smiled back at her, but only a little.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
"Oh... Yeah. Yeah, I'm... I'm okay."  
  
"You don't seem okay."  
  
"I'm fine..."  
  
"Okay, Max. If you say so."  
  
Max fell silent.  
  
Sophia gently hugged him.  
  
Max hugged back, but seemed a tad troubled.  
  
"Something's bothering you."  
  
"It's nothing." Max quietly lied.  
  
She sighed and dropped it.  
  
Every couple seconds or so, Max would check to see if Sam was still there, as if paranoid of something and/or afraid that the dog would run away.  
That made Sophia wonder if there was a reason why Max was afraid Sam would run from him.  
  
"Did something happen between you and Sam before?" she asked.  
  
"Huh? Wh-wh-..." Max laughed nervously, keeping his gaze locked on the wall beside Sophia, as to trick her into thinking he was making eye contact. "Something happen between us? That's silly!"  
  
"You're lying."  
  
Max froze up for a second. "... I... I'm not lying..." Now unable to decide what to lock his eyes on, Max looked around the room.  
  
"Yes you are."  
  
"Look, it's just..." Max sighed. "I'm a little scared because of it. I don't think I should talk about it."  
  
"You might feel better if you do."  
  
Max looked down at the floor. "Well... I... There were soldiers... I attacked them, killed most of them... but when I did, they weren't soldiers. Sam got really mad at me, and told me that they'd never been soldiers to begin with!" He told the story with a grin on his face for every statement except for the one mentioning Sam's reaction. It seemed he really didn't care about all the innocent lives he'd taken, or how he was apparently prone to hallucinations that would make him harm others, but only cared about Sam.  
  
"You really care about Sam."  
  
"Your point?" Max didn't seem to realize that he was unhealthily obsessed with and dependent on Sam. Either that, or he didn't think his obsession and dependency was unhealthy.  
  
"Well, I really didn't have a point."  
  
"If anyone ever hurts Sam again, or even threatens to or looks like they might, I'll kill them. Anyone." Max said this in a dark tone, still grinning.  
  
Sophia seemed creeped out.  
  
Max giggled a little and his eye twitched. "What's wrong? Why are you staring at me like that?"  
  
"You scared me."  
  
"Scared you? How'd I do that?" Max giggled more, his eye continuing to twitch a bit.  
  
"You're starting to look like my daddy did when he tried to kill me."  
  
"Don't worry, you haven't hurt Sam, so..." Max trailed off, suddenly looking serious. He thought about why Sam was out of the room right now - why he appeared to be a little hurt, and how it connected to Sophia.  
  
Then they heard a toilet flush.  
  
Max seemed mildly distracted by the noise, and he waited to figure out who had caused it.  
  
It was Sam.  
  
Max ran over to him. "Sam!"  
  
Sam hugged back.  
  
"Are you alright now, Sam?" Max asked, staring up at Sam with child-like wonder.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"That's a relief." He said as he shot Sophia a strange glance, one that almost said 'consider this a warning'.  
  
Sophia whimpered as she cowered.  
  
Max smiled up at Sam as she did so.  
  
She didn't feel safe there anymore and snuck out.  
  
When Max turned to go back to her side, he saw that she wasn't there anymore. "Oh? Sam, she's gone!"  
  
Sam's ears drooped. "She left because of me..."  
  
"... I'll take care of this, Sam." Max said with determination in his suddenly-icy tone.  
  
"Don't bother..."  
  
"Come on, Sam, cheer up! Who needs her anyways? It can be just us again, like it used to be!" Max actually seemed happy that she was gone.  
  
Sophia heard this since she was just outside the house and silently sobbed as she ran away.  
  
"What do you say, Sam? You just forget she ever existed, and I'll take care of this whole situation and ensure she never comes crawling back to deliver another unnecessary blow to your feelings?"  
  
Sam glared at him. "Shut up right now."  
  
Max's grin disappeared. "Huh? Sam, what...?"  
  
"You're making it sound like she was the one who did wrong. I was the one who wronged her!"  
  
Max shook his head. "That's not true, Sam. You didn't do anything wrong. She's the one that keeps hurting you. And for that, I'll kill her." Max grinned as he revealed his intention.  
  
"So that's it. She saves you and tried to save me and this is how you'll repay her? No wonder she left. It wasn't me she was scared of. It was YOU!"  
  
Max flinched at Sam's shout. He looked a little remorseful as he looked away from Sam. "Everytime you see her, you get sad, Sam. If you can't see her, you won't be made sad like that. How come whenever I try to keep you happy, I make everything worse...?"  
  
"Because you want to kill everyone!"  
  
"That's an unfair accusation, Sam." He said with a troubled expression. "I only want to kill whoever hurts you."  
  
Sam shook his head and grabbed his coat.  
  
"Sam?"  
  
"I'm going to look for her."  
  
"... Should... Should I go with you?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Okay..."  
  
Sam left to find her.  
  
Max was left alone, thinking idly, which wasn't good for him with his powers and all.  
  
Sam soon came back with a bundle in his arms.  
  
Max looked over. "... Sam, what's that?"  
  
Sam unwrapped the bundle to show Sophia had frozen herself in ice.  
  
Max stared for a moment and then looked up at Sam. He didn't say a word.  
  
Sam didn't say anything as he walked past Max.  
  
"I'm sure I could thaw her out..." Max mumbled.  
  
"And risk having you toast her? No.”  
  
"What other choice do you have, Sam? Watching her remain cryogenically frozen for the rest of time?"  
  
Sam sighed. "Fine."  
  
Max tried to use his powers to thaw her out, but accidentally burnt her just a little in doing so.  
  
She yelped as she thawed out.  
  
"Oops."  
  
When she saw Max she backed up and cowered.  
  
"There you go, Sam."  
  
Sam gently hugged her as she slowly calmed down.  
  
Max was quiet.  
  
"Wh-why do you hate me, Max?" Sophia asked shakily.  
  
"Hate you? I don't hate you."  
  
"Liar! You said you would kill me for hurting Sam and I didn't do anything wrong!"  
  
"I thought it would have made Sam happy, but I guess it wouldn't have."  
  
She sniffled. "You're just like my parents; wanting to get rid of me..."  
  
"I don't want to get rid of you anymore."  
  
"I don't believe you anymore, Max..."  
  
"I get that a lot." Max paused. "Oh, wait. No I don't. No one really believes me to begin with." He shrugged.  
  
"Even Sam?"  
  
Max only shrugged again.  
  
"I really did trust you but then you did that..."  
  
Max looked away.  
  
Sophia snuggled into Sam.  
  
A sort of disgruntled sneer appeared on Max's face as he watched this.  
  
Soon she fell asleep.  
  
Max looked away, his arms crossed.  
  
"What's up with you?" asked Sam.  
  
"Nothing." Max said.  
  
Sam shrugged it off.  
  
If Sam didn't know any better, it kind of looked as if Max were a little jealous that Sophia was getting comfort and attention from Sam.  
  
"You're jealous of Sophia, aren't you?"  
  
"Jealous? I don't know what you're talking about, Sam."  
  
"You looked like you were going to tackle her out of my arms just now."  
  
"You're reading me all wrong, Sam." Max looked away as he denied this.  
  
Sam brought him over to hug him. "I still care about you, Max."  
  
Max blinked; he was a tad petrified by the hug. "... You do? That's a relief." He let his typical grin take up the lower half of his face, as per norm.  
  
"Good to see you're yourself again."  
  
"I guess I just have moments." Max shrugged.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Max returned the hug at this point.  
  
Sam smiled a bit.  
  
"I just don't like seeing you unhappy, Sam."  
  
"It's part of life, Max, to be unhappy sometimes."  
  
"I guess so, huh...? Life's cruel, Sam."  
  
"It can be but it can also be a joy."  
  
"How so?"  
  
"Well, the friends we make and family makes it a joy."  
  
"I guess that makes sense."  
  
"So do you see what I'm talking about?"  
  
"I think so, yeah."  
  
"Good." Sam smiled.  
  
Max smiled a little back.  
  
"Hey, I can't believe I didn't think of this before. Maybe you could use your powers to fix Sophia's voice."  
  
"I could technically improvise by throwing my voice into her and verbalizing what she thinks..." Max thought about it.  
  
"That could be our back up plan just in case. Any other ideas?"  
  
"Maybe Geek could somehow make this little voicebox thing and I can throw her thoughts into that?"  
  
"Like a collar for her to wear with the device on it?"  
  
"I was thinking something more morbid, but that works too."  
  
"What do you mean by morbid?"  
  
"Like actually cutting her throat open and replacing her vocal cords."  
  
Sam cringed. "I like the collar idea better. Less mess."  
  
"Well, I mean, if we replace her vocal cords, we won't have to worry about her collar shorting out and electricuting her or anything. Hee hee!"  
  
"That's true. It could be safer for her."  
  
"So, what do you say, Sam? What should we do? Unlicensed and probably-illegal surgery or force Geek to try to make something close to what we could do with some scalpels?"  
  
"We don't need to force Geek into helping and we should ask Sophia what she wants."  
  
"Maybe I should just read her mind for it while she's out, just in case she's already thought of her own solution."  
  
"Alright."  
  
Max read her mind for her own opinion on that, and also the last known location of her parents.  
  
She wanted anything to be done to get her voice back and her parents were in a house in a town not too far from where they were.  
  
"Well, Sam, she's willing to do whatever it takes to get her voice back." Max told Sam. He kept the location of her parents a secret, though.  
  
"Okay then. I guess we do it."  
  
"I can go steal some scalpels."  
  
"Alright."  
  
Max teleported away, but instead went to the house Sophia's parents were staying at.  
  
Sophia's mother shrieked in fear as she saw him.  
  
"Hello, you must be the mother of a little girl that came running to me after being dumped in an alley." Max grinned.  
  
"Y-you found that devil child?!"  
  
"Funny, I met the devil myself. He's not all that into ice. He's more into fire, like this!" Max created a ball of fire.  
  
She screamed as she fell back in fear.  
  
Max laughed. "Isn't it funny how much I look like your daughter? How did she get those powers, anyways? Surely you or her father must have some form of powers."  
  
"We are both normal!"  
  
"That's what I used to say!" Max didn't correct himself. "I just thought I should let you know that your daughter still loves you, and I nearly made her commit suicide, and now she needs surgery." He said this with his grin still plastered to his face.  
  
"Well I want no part of it!"  
  
"Parents these days can be so cruel. Who the hell are you, anyways? I've never met any rabbits outside of my family with teeth like mine until I met your daughter."  
  
"I don't have to tell you anything!"  
  
"I think telling me would be in your best interest. Lest I bring you to your daughter and make her watch as I whip you with fire."  
  
"How should I know why my side has sharp teeth? No one ever told me!"  
  
"I don't think you're telling me the whole truth." Max narrowed his beady eyes as he tried to read her mind to find out more.  
  
She really didn't know.  
  
"Either way... If you can't muster up even a little love for your own child, you must be one sick, twisted mother. If you could even be called that."  
  
"I have no child!"  
  
"Had you not said that, I might not have to kill you now!" Max lunged at her, his teeth bared and ready to bite.  
  
She barely dodged and grabbed a frying pan, slamming it into his head.  
  
Her attempt to fight back made him snarl at her and shake her a little with his powers.  
  
She yelped and dropped the frying pan.  
  
Max used his powers to beat her up a little with it as he himself bit into her ankle.  
  
She screamed in pain.  
  
Max threw her to the floor. "People like you are the worst. Abandoning your daughter in a dumpster? That's almost like what my own parents did to me, but even my parents, with all their flaws, weren't that cruel. Now your daughter's latching onto the only person I've ever had in my life. He's truly a nice guy, but I want him to stay mine alone. It's all your fault. It's not her I should kill, but you and her father instead!"  
  
"You're insane!" she cried as she tried to drag herself away from him.  
  
"I'm not insane." He denied this claim sharply as he pulled his hammer from wherever he kept his things and raised it above his head to bring down upon her.  
  
Suddenly Sophia ran in and got between her and Max.  
  
Max was a little surprised. "Well, hello there! What are you doing here?"  
  
"I knew you read my mind, Max, and you were going to kill my parents! I still love them even if they'll never love me!" she cried.  
  
"Where's Sam?" As what could be considered normal, this was Max's primary concern.  
  
"He's still at the house!"  
  
"So he doesn't know about this?" He asked, not moving from his threatening position of being about to beat Sophia's mother's head in.  
  
"No. But he will start wondering why you haven't returned and then he'll notice I'm gone."  
  
Max's grin returned. "That won't be a problem. I have an idea."  
  
"I'm afraid to ask what it is."  
  
Max dropped the hammer, letting it hit Sophia's mother on the head. "Oops. I'll be back for you." He stepped closer to Sophia. "You and I are going back to Sam now."  
  
"Please, Max. Please don't kill them. They might hate me but I still love them."  
  
Max didn't respond to this. He simply grabbed Sophia by the arm and teleported both of them back to her room.  
  
"Please, Max. Promise me you won't kill them."  
  
"Shush." He blocked her out and forced her back into bed with his powers.  
  
She looked at him with sad eyes.  
  
Max left the room to confront Sam, still subconsciously restraining her to the bed. "Sam...? Sam, we need to talk."


	16. Max's Parents

"What's wrong, Max?" asked Sam.  
  
"When I came back with the scalpels, Sophia was awake... I read her mind to understand her... and she told me that she actually didn't wanted to get her voice back!"  
  
"Really? Wonder why she changed her mind."  
  
"No idea, Sam."  
  
"Well, I'll take your word for it, Max."  
  
"Anyways, I'm going to go back in and discuss with her about things."  
  
"Okay, Max."  
  
Max stepped into Sophia's room.  
  
Sophia looked up at him.  
  
"Now he'll never find out what happened."  
  
"Wh-what do you mean by that?"  
  
"I convinced Sam that you don't want your voice back." Max grinned.  
  
Sophia's eyes welled up in tears as she sobbed.  
  
Max snickered a little. From the brief look on his face, he felt a little remorseful about his actions, but shoved it aside.  
  
"Please leave my room."  
  
"Alright. I want to go ask Sam something, anyways."  
  
She sniffled a bit.  
  
Max left the room and went back to Sam. "Sam?"  
  
"Yes, Max?" asked Sam.  
  
"Am I insane?"  
  
"Maybe a little." smiled Sam.  
  
"Really?"  
  
"If you weren't, then you wouldn't be you."  
  
"I guess so."  
  
"Why do you ask?"  
  
"I was just curious."  
  
"Alright."  
  
"So what now, Sam?"  
  
"I guess nothing since Sophia changed her mind about getting her voice back."  
  
"Nothing? There has to be something we can do. You know how much I hate being bored, Sam."  
  
"Well, like I said we could be helping Sophia get her voice back but she changed her mind."  
  
"Then let's think of something else."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"Uh..." Max couldn't think of anything.  
  
Sam couldn't think of anything either.  
  
"Well, there's... There's gotta be something to do. How about we take the DeSoto for a joyride?"  
  
"That sounds good. It's been a long time since we drove the car."  
  
"Let's go, then!" Max excitedly ran out.  
  
Sam chuckled and grabbed the car keys before following Max.  
  
Once in range, Max dived into the car.  
  
Sam dove in too and put the key into the ignition, then drove off.  
  
"I've missed our car, Sam."  
  
"Me too, Max."  
  
"... Say, Sam?"  
  
"Yes, Max?"  
  
"I..." The lagomorph sighed. "Nevermind, it's nothing..."  
  
"You can tell me anything, Max."  
  
He seemed to shrink up a little at those words. "You'll get angry at me again if I say..."  
  
"Max, just tell me."  
  
He paused for a moment before looking at Sam. "This isn't what I had in mind to say, but... I want to visit my mother, Sam."  
  
"Your... mom? You never said anything about her until now."  
  
"She's in a looney bin, Sam. My father's in prison. I haven't seen them since I was this small!" Max pinched his fingers together.  
  
"If you want to see them, I'll take you to them, Max."  
  
Max smiled broadly. "Then let's go!"  
  
"Okay, who to visit first?"  
  
"My mother, I guess."  
  
Sam nodded and drove to the insane asylum where she was.  
  
Max rushed in and asked to be taken to his mother.  
  
The nurse nodded and brought him to her room.  
  
Despite multiple complaints from nurses, Max let himself into her room. "Mom~!"  
  
His mother looked over and smiled widely. "Maxie!"  
  
He rushed over and gave his mother a hug. "Oh, how I've missed you! Mom, I have some questions I need to ask."  
  
"Sure, sweetie. Ask me anything."  
  
"Why does everyone call you crazy?"  
  
"Oh, that. It's because I blew up people during a funeral. No sense of humor at all, these people."  
  
Max smiled a little at that. "What happened with dad?"  
  
"He did a funnier joke. He blew up a clown at a birthday party."  
  
"I've done some things too..."  
  
"Like what, son?"  
  
"I've brutally murdered more people than I can count with these psychic powers I developed."  
  
"That's my boy!" she grinned and hugged him.  
  
This hadn't exactly been the exact response he'd been expecting. "... It's good that I did that? Sam gets mad at me whenever I kill anyone, so I thought..."  
  
"Well, your friend is actually right to get mad about it, I guess. You see, normal people - unlike us - don't think killing is funny or fun to do."  
  
"I think they're the crazy--..." Max trailed off, realizing that if he finished that statement, he'd be calling Sam crazy.  
  
"Max? What's wrong, son?"  
  
"So am I crazy?"  
  
"In the eyes of normals, yes."  
  
Max thought about that, wondering if that could mean that Sam really did think he was insane. "... Say, I need advice. If a friend of mine was a 'normal', how could I go about getting hi-- er, them to stay with me - and me alone - forever, without making them hate me?"  
  
"Well, if this friend is truly your friend then you have nothing to worry about because they'll stay by you no matter what."  
  
"What if I've accidentally pushed them a little too far and I'm worried that they'll turn their back on me?"  
  
"Then they're not your true friends."  
  
Max's expression became grim and his eyes seemed to grow dark. "I see..."  
  
"You'll be fine, son. I'm sure you have a true friend."  
  
"Apparently not..." Max rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "... One last question, I guess. Do you know any other lagomorph women with sharp teeth?"  
  
"Hmm.. My cousin Laurie but she was taken away as a baby."  
  
Max's ears stiffly straightened out further. "Do you know if she had a kid?"  
  
"I think so. A little girl."  
  
"Was... Heh," Max laughed nervously. "Of course, the girl's name wasn't Sophia, was it? Ha ha!"  
  
"Yes it was! How did you know?"  
  
Max abruptly stopped laughing. "I should've known the moment I saw her sharp teeth that we were related somehow... Yet this revelation still surprises me."  
  
"What do you mean, Maxie?"  
  
"Sophia's staying with me and Sam. Laurie, was that her name? She left Sophia for dead in a dumpster when she found out her daughter had powers contrasting my own. ... But a lot's happened, and I..." Max hesitated in continuing.  
  
"And you what?"  
  
Max averted his eyes. "Well, Sophia lost her voice. I found out I could talk to her with my powers, and eventually I came to the conclusion that she was hurting Sam, so after I threatened to kill her and slightly patched that up, I tried to kill her mother... She stopped me though, and now I've convinced Sam that she doesn't want her voice back so that she won't tell him that I've tried to torment her again, because he got really mad at me the first time..."  
  
His mother's grin quickly vanished as she heard this. "You did what?"  
  
Max shrunk a little as he stared guiltily at his mother. "I just don't know how to stop, mom..."  
  
Her eyes softened and hugged him. "You should start trusting in your friends and let them help you when you lose your way like that."  
  
"How can I trust them when they probably don't trust me anymore? Sam and Sophia could be plotting to get rid of me for all I know." Max sighed. "I just... I'm doing this for... I'm doing this for Sam."  
  
"I don't think they're plotting to get rid of you. Sam still cares for you, doesn't he?"  
  
"That's just it; I don't know. That's why I want to ensure it... Now what I've done to Sophia's backfired, and he seems to be thinking mostly of her." Max said this with a bitter tone.  
  
"It's natural to feeling like this, Max. You feel like she's taking him away. But she isn't; she's just becoming another friend of his. Have you tried to be her friend too?"  
  
"Before I figured she was hurting Sam, yeah..."  
  
"But she didn't hurt Sam, did she?"  
  
"Well, she... Sam hurt her against his will, and... everytime Sam saw her, he got sad..."  
  
"Ah. He felt guilty even though he wasn't in control."  
  
"Yeah... I couldn't bare to see him so sad all the time, so I thought that getting rid of Sophia would solve the problem... so I threatened her until she ran away and that only made Sam feel worse. Then when I offered to kill her, he started accusing me of wanting to kill everyone and for treating her 'wrongly'."  
  
"I hate to say it but he was right. You did treat her wrongly."  
  
Max let out a quick sigh. "Then he found her and brought her back, and... she'd tried to kill herself."  
  
"Oh dear..."  
  
"I was able to save her with my powers, so I decided a way to make it up to her would be to kill her mother. Then, I don't know... When she didn't take kindly to why attempt to please her, I guess I thought about the risk I'd run if I let her get her voice back. If she tells Sam about what I nearly did, we'd be through, I just know it. So I can't let her tell him that, ever."  
  
"Did she say she was going to tell Sam?"  
  
"No, but after what I've done to her, I know she will."  
  
"There's your problem right there. You don't trust her."  
  
"What, I'm supposed to just assume that she won't tell Sam what I did behind his back?"  
  
"Yes and you're forgetting she can't talk right now."  
  
Max stood. "Fine, I'll... I'll give her another chance after I go visit dad." He then gave a dark look in no particular direction. "But if she causes me to lose Sam, I'll murder her without hesitation."  
  
"I heard that, Max."  
  
Max ignored her and walked to the door, where he turned back briefly. "I love you, mom."  
  
"I love you too, Maxie. And who knows? Maybe if I'm good they'll let me out so I could visit you."  
  
Max looked at his hand and created a small ball of fire for just a moment. "Waiting might not be necessary..." He suddenly shook his head at the idea, as if not wanting to go through with it and maybe even seeming a little scared of it. He then left the room and returned to Sam.  
  
Sam was still in the car, listening to music on the radio.  
  
Max stopped by the car door and looked back at the building, thinking more about the idea he'd had.  
  
"How did it go?" Sam asked after he turned the radio off.  
  
"Huh?" He whipped his head around to look at Sam, startled by his voice and thus snapped out of his thoughts. "... Oh. It went, uh... alright, I guess."  
  
"That's good. So off to see your dad, right?"  
  
"Yeah." Max jumped into the car.  
  
Sam turned on the car and drove to the prison.  
  
As he drove, Max seemed to give him a strange look.  
  
"Something on your mind, Max?"  
  
"No..." He averted his eyes.  
  
"You sure?"  
  
Max nodded.  
  
"Okay, but if you want to talk about anything, you can tell me anything."  
  
"I know, Sam."  
  
He smiled as he drove the car.  
  
When they reached the prison, Max went to the warden and asked to see his father.  
  
The warden agreed and brought him to his father's cell.  
  
"Dad...?"  
  
"Hey, Maxy boy! Come here!" his father smiled and gave him a bearhug.  
  
Max tried to seem more happy than he actually was. "Dad, I need your opinions on some issues I'm having."  
  
"Sure, son. Fire away."  
  
Max asked him most of the same questions he'd asked his mother.  
  
And his father gave him the same answers.  
  
"Alright... I see what I've got to do now, then."  
  
"Alright, son."  
  
"I love you, dad." Max said as he walked to leave the cell.  
  
"Love you too, Max."  
  
When Max left the cell, he was suddenly tackled down by some officers. "Hey!"  
"You're under arrest!" They shouted.  
  
"Hey! That's my son! Leave him alone!" his father growled and threw the officers off of Max.  
  
Max tried to telepathically contact Sam. "Sam, we've run into a bit of a problem!"  
  
"I'm on my way!" Sam answered and drove through the prison. "Need a ride, Max?"  
  
Max jumped into the DeSoto and looked back at his dad in the crowd of cops.  
  
"Go, Max! Before they send out more! I'll be fine!"  
  
"Thanks, dad! You're the best!" Max briefly flicked his fingers, using his powers to throw all the cops back to give his father a better chance. "Step on it, Sam!"  
  
Sam slammed down on the gas and sped out of the prison.  
  
"We have to get back to Sophia."  
  
"Okay. You run in to get her and I'll keep the car running."  
  
When they reached the house, Max jumped out of the DeSoto and ran inside to Sophia's room.  
  
Sophia looked up at him with tired eyes.  
  
"Sophia! We've gotta get out of here." Max picked her up in a bridal carry as he re-allowed her thoughts to enter his head like a voice.  
  
"What's going on?" she asked.  
  
"The cops are here to arrest us and probably take me back to the Commissioner to get another spider put into me. You know, the usual." Max ran to leave the room.  
  
"Oh no!"  
  
Max skid to a stop when he saw the cops barge in through the front door. "No way... If you're there, then... Sam!?" Max called out as the cops aimed their guns at the two rabbits.  
  
"I'm a bit tied up out here, Max!" Sam gulped.  
  
"Sam!!" Max growled at the cops around them. "Let Sam go! He didn't do anything!"  
The cops kept their guns aimed at Max, and started firing. Max's first reaction was to turn around to shield Sophia.  
  
Sophia's eyes glowed as she froze the bullets, causing them to fall short of Max.  
  
Max picked the bullets up with his telekinesis, lit them on fire, and whipped them back at the officers, most of which got hit and fell over. Then Max found himself in a bit of a problem; he had to choose to either get Sophia someplace safe and risk Sam's safety, or save Sam and risk Sophia's safety.  
  
Sophia answered that question when she created a giant icicle and slammed it into the rest of the officers.  
  
Max gently put her down. "Stay safe for just a minute! I have to help Sam!" Hesitantly, he ran out to see what kind of situation Sam was in.  
  
He saw that the officers had the car surrounded and one had his gun close to Sam's head.  
  
Max froze up a little. "... Sam..."  
  
"Max! Save yourself and Sophia! There's no way out for me! Run!!"  
  
Max remained petrified by the scene before him, even as the some of the other officers stood their guard to shoot him if he tried anything funny.  
  
Suddenly a gust of frozen wind whipped through and froze the officers' guns to their hands.  
"Now, Max!!" Sophia called out in his mind.  
  
Max launched himself at the one holding his gun to Sam's head.  
  
The officer yelled as Max bit his arm. Sam took this opportunity to swing open the car door and hit the officer in the gut.  
  
Max used the combined force of his teeth and his powers to physically rip the officer's arm off, and then he lunged for their throat.  
  
Sam didn't stop him as he grabbed his gun and fired at the rest of the officers.  
  
They ducked for cover behind their own vehicles and a squad of them made a dash to get to Sophia. Despite seeming to be busy relentlessly ripping Sam's attacker apart, Max managed to create an invisible shield around the house to prevent them from entering.  
  
Sophia continued to use her powers to help by sending icicles at the officers hiding behind their cars.  
  
Soon, Max stood, apparently satisfied. Then he looked at the cars and had an idea, lugging balls of fire at the gas inputs.  
  
Sam kept firing at the remaining officers.  
  
The cars, which were relatively close by, exploded, making Max laugh until he was smacked over the head and thrown back by a chunk of debris.  
  
"Max!!" Sam cried as he rushed to his side.  
  
The invisible shield around the house disappeared as Max lay still. His head was starting to bleed where he'd been hit.  
  
Sam quickly ran to the car and grabbed the first-aid kit and ran back to Max, bandaging Max's head wound.  
  
Max made a small noise when the bandage came in contact with his injury.  
  
"Easy. It's just me fixing you up."  
  
"... S-Sam...?"  
  
"Yeah, it's me, Max."  
  
"S-Sam, we... we gotta go..."  
  
Sam nodded and ran into the house to grab Sophia.  
  
Max struggled to his feet.  
  
Sam came back with her and helped him up.  
  
"L-let's go, Sam..."  
  
He nodded and helped them into the car before driving off.  
  
Max seemed to start dozing off, though he appeared to be uncomfortable.  
  
Sophia helped him into a better position.  
  
He started to fall asleep.  
  
She smiled and snuggled into him before falling asleep too.  
  
Max started to dream.  
  
He found himself standing in a sea of blood.  
  
He looked around a bit. "... Sam?"  
  
He saw Sam laid face first on the ground in front of him.  
  
Slowly, he walked over. "... S-Sam...? Hey, big guy... Can you hear me?"  
  
He didn't answer.  
  
"Sam...?" Max used what physical strength he had to flip Sam over.  
  
He was shocked to see Sam's throat was ripped out.  
  
Max stumbled backwards, tripping on part of Sam's suit, and after gasping for air in a panic, screamed at the top of his lungs.  
  
"M-Max..?" Sophia said weakly.  
  
"Sophia..." Max spoke in a shaky, weak voice as he was unable to stop staring at Sam's gaping wound. "What happened...?"  
  
"Y-you don't remember...? You k-killed him..."  
  
Max's eyes widened. His blood-covered hands shot to his ears, pulling them down. "No, shut up. Don't joke like that. I'd never hurt Sam."  
  
"But you did and very nearly almost killed me too.."  
  
The lagomorph shook his head. "I-I didn't do it...! How could I...?!"  
  
"You hallucinated again..."  
  
Max screamed again, beginning to shake his head more feverishly. "No!! That's impossible!! You're lying!!"  
  
"I-I'm not..." she said as she dragged herself into view all covered in blood and was missing an ear, arm and leg.  
  
Max looked utterly terrified, a look that didn't suit him too well.  
  
Sophia suddenly collasped.  
  
"... S-... Sophia...?"  
  
She was barely breathing.  
  
Max didn't know what to do. He just stared at her with a guilty expression.  
  
"M-Max..."  
  
The first thought to cross his mind was to put her out of her misery, but he tried to shove that thought aside. "I-I can't think straight..."  
  
"Please kill me..."  
  
"N-no!"  
  
"Wh-why...?"  
  
Max felt like he was losing his mind. "I won't...!"  
  
"But I-I'm suffering..."  
  
Trembling and uncertain, Max frantically looked for Sam's gun.  
  
The gun was in Sam's cold hands.  
  
Not thinking about its location, Max took it in both hands and hesitantly placed the barrel of it against Sophia's head.  
  
She smiled and closed her eyes.  
  
With shaky hands, he shut his eyes tight and pulled the trigger.  
  
That's when he woke up.  
  
He jolted up, screaming.


	17. The Chief

Sophia woke up startled and Sam yelped a bit in surprise.   
"You okay, Max?" Sam asked.  
  
Max's only response was clutching his head and curling up.  
  
"Max?" Sophia asked and gently touched his shoulder.  
  
Max shuddered and curled up more. It sounded like he was crying a little.  
  
Her long ears drooped as she gently hugged him. "Shh. The bad dream is gone, Max. You're okay now."  
  
It didn't seem like he could hear her.  
  
She hugged him more and pet his head.  
  
He snuggled into her, but only just a little.  
  
She smiled a bit and continued.  
  
Slowly, he looked up at Sam.  
  
Sam had stopped the car and looked back at Max to make sure he was alright. "You okay now, Max?"  
  
He didn't answer that question. "... Where are we going, Sam...?"  
  
"Hopefully somewhere safe for us, Max."  
  
"... My head hurts, Sam..."  
  
"You're probably hungry. I'll drive us to a drive-thru and get something for us to eat."  
  
Max looked back at Sophia. "I feel like I have something to tell you, but... I don't remember what it is."  
  
"It's okay, Max. Maybe you'll remember later." Sophia said.  
  
Max just sort of awkwardly looked away like he still couldn't hear her.  
  
Her ears drooped sadly, thinking she did something wrong to Max.  
  
"... You don't forgive me yet, do you?" He asked quietly.  
  
"I do forgive you."  
  
He still reacted as if he didn't hear her.  
  
Her ears drooped more and let go of him.  
  
"That's what I thought..."  
  
"Why are you acting like you don't hear me?" she teared up a bit.  
  
Maybe he really couldn't hear her for some reason.  
  
Her eyes widened when she saw the bandage and realized maybe his injury caused him to lose his powers.  
  
She had to find a way to test that theory.  
  
She thought of something and tapped his shoulder, motioning for him to make a fireball in his hands.  
  
"Huh...?" Not quite understanding, Max mimicked her gesture. "Oh... You want me to make a fireball?" He tried, but found himself unable to. "... What the...?"  
  
She found a pad of paper and a pencil and wrote, "I think your injury caused you to lose your powers! That's why you can't hear me in your head!"  
  
"... Sam? Sam, we have another problem."  
  
"What is it, Max?"  
  
"Apparently I've lost my powers."  
  
Sam slammed on the brakes. "What?!"  
  
"I can't hear Sophia's thoughts anymore, and I can't use any of my other powers, either."  
  
"Your head wound! When you got hit it must've done something to your brain!"  
  
"What are we gonna do, Sam?"  
  
"Maybe if you hit your head again, you'll get your powers back."  
  
"I'm not sure if that makes sense, even to me."  
  
"Yeah, I just realized that. Maybe if you rest, your powers will come back."  
  
"My head hurts too much, Sam. Even if I could rest, I don't think I want to after the nightmare I had..." Max shuddered a little.  
  
"Can I look at your wound, Max?" Sophia wrote.  
  
"Uh... Yeah, okay, I guess..."  
  
She unwrapped the bandage and saw there was a small chuck of something stuck in the wound. She slowly pulled it out.  
  
Max cried out a bit, as this hurt him.  
  
"This looks funny." Sophia said as she held the chunk.  
  
"What... What is it...?" Max grumbled.  
  
"Wait.. Did you just hear me?" She looked at him with hopeful eyes.  
  
"Oh... I guess I did. Hey Sam, I can hear her again."  
  
Sam looked at the chunk. "Hmm, I've never seen this stuff before."  
  
"What is it?" Max asked.  
  
"I think it was this stuff that caused your to lose your powers."  
  
"It just looks like regular metal to me."  
  
"Let's keep it so Geek can have a look at it later."  
  
Max made a small ball of fire to test his powers, but after a second it flickered out and he held his head.  
  
"Easy, Max. Don't over do it."  
  
"We'd better keep moving. If those bastards catch up, I can't do much to defend us right now."  
  
Sam nodded and drove the car.  
  
Max sat still. He couldn't help but keep thinking about his nightmare.  
  
"You okay?" asked Sophia.  
  
"Yeah..." However, a brief flicker of the image of Sam's corpse made Max hold his head again.  
  
"Max?"  
  
"I-I'm okay..." He held himself as he said this mostly to convince himself.  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
He tried to nod, but only ended up curling up and clutching his head yet again when he saw a flicker of the image of Sophia's ragged state.  
  
Sophia hugged him. "Max, whatever the bad dream was, it's over and it's not real."  
  
"No matter how hard I try to forget about it, I can't..."  
  
She hugged him more.  
  
Max clung to her.  
  
She rocked him a bit.  
  
He was tired, but he tried not to fall asleep.  
  
"You can sleep. I'm here to comfort you." Sophia smiled.  
  
He saw himself shooting Sophia and laughed a little. "N-no..."  
  
"It's okay, Max. I'm here."  
  
He shook his head feverishly.  
  
"Easy, Max. You'll hurt your head again."  
  
"I-I didn't mean to..." Max murmured.  
  
"It's okay, Max. You're just scared to have that bad dream again."  
  
"How could I have..." Max laughed a little. It didn't look like he was talking to her...  
  
"Max?"  
  
It seemed the nightmare really messed him up. He kept murmuring to himself and snickering a little.  
  
Sophia was getting worried. "Max, are you okay?"  
  
"I-I didn't do it..."  
  
"Didn't do what?"  
  
"I'd never kill S-Sam and Sophia... Never..."  
  
"Max, we're here and we're okay."  
  
"I'd never... So it must be a lie..." Max started laughing a little more while he trembled.  
  
"Max, snap out of it!"  
  
Max pulled his ears down over his eyes. "Th-the blood... the wounds... I couldn't possibly have done something l-like that... Ha ha...!"  
  
"Max, you're scaring me!" Sophia cried.  
  
He fell silent other than tiny laughter, but he kept trembling and kept his ears covering his eyes.  
  
She gently took his ears off his eyes and had him look at her. "Max, please snap out of it."  
  
For a moment he looked scared of her, but then he noticed that she had all of her body parts attached and seemed to relax a little.  
  
"Everything's okay, Max." she smiled.  
  
"I can't stop seeing it..."  
  
"It was just a bad dream, Max. It's not real."  
  
"Even so, it could happen, and that's what scares me."  
  
She gently hugged him.  
  
He carefully hugged her back as he noticed that people they were driving by looked like soldiers, making him try to sink further into the carseat.  
  
"It's alright, Max. I'm here for you."  
  
He shook his head, trying to convince himself that he couldn't possibly hallucinate Sam nor Sophia as being a soldier.  
  
Sam stopped at a drive-thru and got them some food.  
  
Max didn't say anything.  
  
"Here, Max." Sam said as he gave him his bag of food.  
  
"Thanks, Sam."  
  
"You're welcome, Max. How's your head?" he asked as he gave Sophia her bag of food.  
  
"It still hurts."  
  
"Maybe it'll feel better later."  
  
"Maybe..."  
  
"Well, let's eat before going further."  
  
"Alright."  
  
Sam parked the car in an alley before starting on his food.  
  
Max ate slowly.  
  
So did Sophia.  
  
He was uncharacteristically quiet.  
  
"You alright, Max?"  
  
He nodded a little.  
  
"We'll get through this together, buddy. Okay?"  
  
He nodded again.  
  
Sam gave a worried look before going back to eating his food.  
  
Eventually Max finished.  
  
So did Sophia.  
  
Max remained quiet.  
  
"Max, you okay?" asked Sophia.  
  
Yet again, he nodded.  
  
"Please talk."  
  
"I'm fine..."  
  
"But you're not acting like your usual self."  
  
"I'm just... that nightmare..."  
  
"I know you're scared but don't forget; we're in charge of our dreams. If you have it again, you have the power to change it to something happier."  
  
"B-but... the nightmare could happen..."  
  
"It'll only happen if you let it happen."  
  
He didn't really respond to that.  
  
"Besides, you have two good friends by your side, Max." she smiled.  
  
He smiled a little.  
  
Sophia grinned, showing her pointed teeth, and hugged him.  
  
Seeing her teeth seemed to jog something in his memory, but he couldn't put his tongue on what it was.  
  
Then he remembered what his mother told him about her.  
  
"I remember what I have to tell you now! Sophia, you're my cousin!"  
  
"I'm... your cousin? So that makes us family..?" she said as she teared up and slowly smiled.  
  
"I spoke with my mother and she told me that your mother is her cousin, which makes you my cousin in a rough sense." Max grinned.  
  
She grinned bigger as she hugged him more. "This is awesome! I'm Max of the Freelance Police's cousin!"  
  
Max hugged her back.  
  
She giggled happily as she snuggled into him. Sam looked back them and smiled. "So she's your cousin?"  
  
"Yeah. What are the odds, right?"  
  
"Yeah, but now you have a chance to know how a family feels like."  
  
"That's true."  
  
Sophia purred happily as she slowly fell asleep in Max's arms.  
  
Max pet her a little.  
  
She purred more and smiled in her sleep.  
  
"Sam?"  
  
"Yeah, Max?"  
  
"What are we going to do? We're clearly not in a good situation."  
  
"I wish I knew, Max. I guess we'll just have to keep going."  
  
"I guess so..."  
  
"Unless... We clear our names." Sam smirked.  
  
"How are we supposed to do that?"  
  
"We have Geek turn the spider against the Chief."  
  
"That is, if any of us can even reach the Chief to sic the spider on him."  
  
"We could control it through a remote control like with a toy car."  
  
"Maybe... but if we have the spider now, then won't they find out we sent it?"  
  
"Remember Geek said he made changes to it? He might have had extras made of the spider."  
  
"But what if he didn't?"  
  
"Then we'll just have to get it in quietly."  
  
"I don't know about this, Sam..."  
  
"You got a better idea?"  
  
"... No, not really."  
  
"We could allow ourselves to get captured and sneak attack him."  
  
"Do you think that's safe?"  
  
"Come to think of it, not really if they made something that can block your powers."  
  
"Maybe I could just take the spider myself and teleport there for a second to drop it off."  
  
"Alright, but wait until Sophia wakes up so she can be back-up just in case."  
  
"Uh, I'm not sure I want to risk her safety like that..."  
  
"Good point."  
  
"And besides, Sam, we don't even have the spider right now."  
  
"Yeah, we need to get it from Geek."  
  
"What if they have her under surveillance?"  
  
"You know Geek, Max. She probably knows they would and jammed their equipment."  
  
"Unless they're holding her hostage."  
  
"That would be so bad right now."  
  
"I guess I could go check on her... if I knew where she was."  
  
"Probably in her secret hideout."  
  
"Well then, I could go get the spider from her and leave it with the chief."  
  
"Be careful, Max."  
  
With a bit of hesitance, Max teleported to Geek's secret hideout.  
  
Geek was working on something as he teleported in and she didn't notice him.  
  
"Hey, Geek!" He bellowed.  
  
She yelped in surprise and nearly fell backwards. "I told you not to do that when I'm working!" she grumbled.  
  
Max laughed a bit. "Either way, Sam and I are in a tiny bit of trouble, and we need the spider."  
  
"Perfect timing. I tweaked it a bit for you guys."  
  
"Ooh~! What did you add to it?"  
  
"I added a remote control for you to use as you want and some lasers in case trying to get it on the person fails."  
  
"You're too good to us, Geek." Max said with a grin still plastered on his face.  
  
"I try." she smiled back.  
  
"Anyways, I should probably take the spider and get a move on now."  
  
She nodded and handed him the spider.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"No problem, Max."  
  
"... Oh, and if something goes wrong... Tell Sam and Sophia I'm sorry."  
  
"I will, Max. Good luck."  
  
Max teleported away.  
  
He teleported to the chief's office.  
  
He found himself right behind the chief. His grin widened as he thought, 'Well, this might be a lot easier than we thought.'  
  
The chief was too busy with paperwork to notice him.  
  
Max slowly approached, preparing to stick the spider to his neck.  
  
The chief kept on working.  
  
Max let out a battle cry as he put the spider onto him.  
  
"What the hell?!" the chief yelled in surprise.  
  
Max laughed and jumped back. "This is for Sam and myself! Revenge is sweet."  
  
He grunted as he tried to get the spider off his neck but failed.  
  
"Now why don't we just see what you're working on right now..." Max jumped up onto his lap and started looking at his work.  
  
It was plans to make more spiders and make them even more deadly.  
  
Using his powers, Max set them ablaze.  
  
The chief was still trying to get the spider off of him.  
  
"Maybe you should've have made these things so resiliant. Now you're under my control instead of the other way around. Isn't it funny how the world works? Hee hee!"  
  
"Get it off me!!"  
  
"Why should I?"  
  
"I'll do anything!!"  
  
"Even let Sam and I off the hook and leave us alone?"  
  
"Yes!!"  
  
"I dunno... I don't think I should trust you after what you've tried to make me do."  
  
"Why you little--!" the chief growled.  
  
"You tried to make me kill Sam. I can't just forget that."  
  
The chief tried to grab Max.  
  
Max stepped out of his reach. "Tsk tsk tsk. I wonder... who is it that you care about?"  
  
"You wouldn't dare--!"  
  
"I'm fairly certain I would whether I really want to or not."  
  
He growled.  
  
"You should be begging right now, shouldn't you? Either way, I'm still going to make you attack your loved ones so you can know how it feels."  
  
He growled more and tried to grab him again.  
  
Max tried to read his mind to figure out who he held dearest to him.  
  
To his surprise the chief had no loved ones.  
  
The lagomorph narrowed his eyes a little. "You must be better at hiding your thoughts than I give you credit for."  
  
"I'm not."  
  
"You must be."  
  
"I'm not!"  
  
"Then I could do whatever I want with you..." Max grinned.  
  
The chief gulped a bit.  
  
"Now tell your people to leave my friends and I alone."  
  
"I won't!"  
  
"You will, or else I'll just kill all of your people and you."  
  
"Ha! You can't!"  
  
"What do you mean? Of course I can."  
  
"Not if we use the new metal we created to block your powers!"  
  
"That stuff? Hah, it doesn't even do anything!" Max lied.  
  
The chief growled angrily and tried to grab Max once more.  
  
This time Max let him. "What are you going to do? I can rip your head off within a matter of seconds if you try anything."  
  
He grumbled and dropped him.  
  
"Now, what are you going to do? Are you going to risk the lives of everyone or are you going to let Sam and I go?"  
  
The chief smirked. "How much do you care about Sam, Max?"  
  
Thoughtlessly, Max blurted, "He means the world to me. Why?"  
  
"Then you would be crushed if something happened to him, right?" he smirked more.  
  
Max seemed to become a little nervous. "I'd lose my mind."  
  
"What I told you we planted a bomb in his car?"  
  
"... Huh...?" Max's eyes went wide.  
  
"We did and it should go off in 5 seconds." he grinned.  
  
Max seemed paralyzed.  
  
The chief then grabbed Max by the throat. "Your friends are gone now, rabbit. And soon so will you."  
  
Max did nothing. His long ears drooped a bit, and he had a faraway look in his eyes.  
  
The chief started to choke him.  
  
The lagomorph let his head drop. Suddenly, his voice could he heard behind the chief. "I'm not going to let this slide."  
Other objects in the room, such as pencils and windows and such, started to speak in Max's voice as well due to his powers, saying stuff like how Max was going to rip him limb from limb and destroy the "entire damned continent".  
  
In shock, the chief dropped the rabbit and gulped.  
  
The lagomorph made a snarling noise, his grin now flipped upside down. "There's nothing left for me to lose. So I'll kill everyone, including myself." He said himself. As painfully as he could make it, he threw himself into the chief's mind to figure out from where he could deploy a nuclear weapon to destroy, at the very least, the city.  
  
It was in a base not too far away.  
  
Max lift the chief up with his powers. "You're coming with me." He growled as he teleported to the base.  
  
The chief struggled in his hold.  
  
Max laughed maniacally as he prepared to launch the weapons.  
  
"Why kill everyone?! It was me and my soldiers who did it!!!" the chief yelled.  
  
"It saves me the trouble of having to hunt each and every one of you down." He snarled as he pressed the button wisely labeled "LAUNCH", starting a countdown. "That and there's nothing for me to lose by doing this anymore."  
  
"You truly are the monster I thought you were." the chief growled.  
  
"As for you, you were the one that gave the order to put the bomb in the DeSoto, weren't you?" Max gave him a death glare.  
  
"Yes I did."  
  
"I'll ensure that you get the slowest and most painful death of all."  
  
"What if your friends weren't in the car when it exploded? You'll be killing them!"  
  
"But they were in the car! They were in the car, trying to get away from you bastards! All because you just wouldn't leave us alone! You nearly got Sam killed twice before, and now you've gone and done it. Your repayment is the destruction of America!"  
  
"You're insane!"  
  
"If I am, it's your fault for pushing me over the line."  
  
The chief growled.  
  
Max thought briefly about Geek, his parents, and his cousin once removed.  
  
They were all going to die now because he pushed the launch button.  
  
He tried to shake it off; trying to think of his goal to eradicate all the soldiers in one go.  
  
He couldn't stop thinking about them.  
  
He found his thoughts lingering mostly on Geek - she was still pretty young, and had a lot of potential. He tried harder to shake the thoughts off. "It's too late for regrets now, stupid." He mumbled to himself.  
  
The thoughts wouldn't stop.  
  
He ended up thinking about Sam.  
  
He wondered what was Sam's last moments were and the same for little Sophia.  
  
He wanted to know the last things they thought about more than anything.  
  
Sophia was probably waiting for his return as Sam played the radio.  
  
He whipped around and grabbed the chief by the collar of his shirt. "You call me a monster, but you're the one who..." He shook his head, tears beginning the spill from his beady brown eyes. "Did you know there was a little girl in that car with Sam?! She's dead now because of you!!"  
  
The chief's eyes widened. "A-a little girl...?"  
  
"Sam and I were her everything because her parents were monsters, just like you!! She loved me more though, I think..." Max shoved the chief away from himself and turned his back, beginning to cry a little more openly. "She just wanted to be accepted... She wanted to be a member of the Freelance Police and just be accepted..."  
  
The chief yelped as he fell against a wall; still shocked he had killed a child.  
  
Max tried to read his mind again to see if there was anyway to shutdown and/or redirect the weapons.  
  
There was a shutdown.  
  
"I've changed my mind." The lagomorph announced as he tried to shut down the weapons and pulled out his luger.  
  
He was able to shut the weapons down.  
  
He turned towards the chief and aimed his luger at his head. "You and I will be the last two to die today."  
  
The chief said nothing.  
  
"No last words? So be it." Max's finger tightened around the trigger, pushing it back a little more.  
  
He still said nothing.  
  
Max pulled the trigger.  
  
The chief was shot in the head and fell dead.  
  
He stood there quietly for a moment before the brought the luger to his own head.  
  
"Don't do it, Max!!!"  
  
Max looked for the source of the voice.  
  
To his surprise, the voice came from Sophia!


	18. Max Snaps

He let his hand drop. "... S-... Sophia...?"  
  
"Oh, thank goodness you're alright!" she cried and tackle-hugged him.  
  
He hugged her back. "Where's Sam? Is Sam alive too?" He asked in a hurried way.  
  
"Yes, he is. Good thing I had to pee and Sam took me to find a bathroom or that bomb would have killed us..."  
  
Max held her tighter. "Bless your small bladder!" He cried with a smile on his face.  
  
She giggled happily and snuggled into him as Sam walked over.  
  
"Sam!" Pulling Sophia along gently, Max ran to hug Sam.  
  
Sam hugged him and Sophia tight. "Max! It's so good to see you alive!" he cried.  
  
"Why? Did you think something had happened to me?"  
  
"Yeah, since they were crazy enough to plant a bomb on the car, I thought they would have something worse for you."  
  
"Heh. It's funny because I was the one who was going to do something insane." He quickly cleared his throat and tried to change the subject. "How did you guys know where to find me?"  
  
"I had a feeling." said Sophia. "A weird feeling in my head."  
  
"A weird feeling in your head?"  
  
"Yeah. It made me see a fuzzy picture of where you were."  
  
"Looks like we're linked a little more than I thought. Is that how you came across Sam and I in the first place?"  
  
"Come to think of it, yeah."  
  
Max looked back up at Sam with a grin on his face as per norm. "Sam, what do we do now? The soldiers are still gonna be after us, even if the chief is dead."  
  
"If only we could wipe the soldiers' minds of their orders to kill us..." pondered Sam.  
  
"That might be too much for me to do."  
  
"Not if I help out." offered Sophia.  
  
"How could you help? I'm the only one that can do that sort of thing."  
  
"I notice when you use your powers when I'm around it's more powerful and the same goes for my powers."  
  
"Still, I don't know if it'll be enough. There are a lot of soldiers, and anyways, I don't want to be out there and risk having you or Sam get hurt."  
  
"We'll be okay, Max."  
  
"I don't wanna take that sort of chance."  
  
"Well, how about we go from base to base with you to wipe their memories then?"  
  
He shook his head. "What I'm saying is that I think you two should hide out somewhere safe... Wherever that might be."  
  
"There's an old school that got closed down where I often go and play. We could go there."  
  
"Alright."  
  
"Okay, cousin. You be careful." Sophia said as she hugged him.  
  
Max held her a bit and turned his gaze back to Sam again. "When I thought you and Sophia were dead, I went a little nuts and nearly blew up the whole damn continent. Then I guess I had a change of heart. I'm glad you're alive."  
  
"I'm glad you're alive too, Max." Sam smiled.  
  
Max jumped up and hugged him. "I changed my mind about destroying everything because something reminded me of Geek. So have I proved yet that I don't want to kill everyone?"  
  
"Yeah, you did, buddy." Sam hugged back.  
  
Max's grin returned yet again.  
  
Sam smiled back.  
  
"All I needed was to see you smile at me again, Sam. I'm ready to get going now."  
  
"Alright. Be careful out there, alright?"  
  
"I'll try."  
  
"Okay. Good luck."  
  
Max teleported away with slight hesitance.  
  
Sophia lead Sam to the old school.  
  
Meanwhile, Max ended up at a military base and hid, wondering just how he was going to go about this.  
  
Whatever he does, it should be quick.  
  
With an uncertain sigh, he simply stepped out of hiding.  
  
The soldiers didn't notice him.  
  
He whistled to get their attention.  
  
They looked at him and readied their weapons.  
  
He froze all of them in place with his powers.  
  
They all struggled to get free.  
  
Something in the back of the lagomorph's mind reminded him that he could just kill them all and be done with it, but he tried to force it back. "No... I... I can't kill them." He muttered to himself.  
  
Besides, he had to at least try Sam's idea.  
  
Still, the little thought process going on in the back of his head kept pestering him. It'd be so much easier to just kill them...  
He shook his head, putting a hand over it and forcing his eyes shut. "I'm... not going to kill them..."  
  
The soldiers continued to struggle.  
  
Max felt himself slipping a little - he'd never really been one to fight the first thing to come into his mind, so willpower wasn't a strong point for him. He stumbled backwards a bit. "No, I... Sam... wouldn't..." He mumbled senselessly. The grip he had on the soldiers with his powers fluctuated in strength as if he were toying with the notions of crushing them or releasing them.  
  
They groaned and struggled more.  
  
The rabbit clutched his head in both hands now. "Shut up..." He growled at the thoughts going through his head, though it made no difference. He tried to think of Sam - his anchor to sanity, it seemed - but all he was able to do was remind himself of his nightmare from before, and then what these soldiers had almost done to Sam.  
  
It was starting to make his head hurt.  
  
"Even if they tried to kill Sam, they... they..." He tried to argue with himself, but could feel himself losing it.  
  
He heard one of the soldiers suddenly scream.  
  
He looked up.  
  
The soldier was being squeezed to death in Max's grip.  
  
"No!" Max tried to release him, but was surprised to find that he wasn't in control of his powers anymore - it was as though they had a mind of their own.  
  
The soldier screamed more.  
  
"Stop! Let him go!" Max shouted at himself to no avail.  
  
The soldier's neck was snapped and was dropped to the floor dead.  
  
Max stared, suddenly scared of his powers.  
  
Another soldier started to scream.  
  
He tried to turn and run or teleport away, but he found himself practically frozen in place. "No! Stop! I don't wanna kill anymore! Stop!!" He screamed as he clutched his head.  
  
Then all the soldiers were suddenly dropped.  
  
Noticing he could move again, Max quickly turned and ran.  
  
The soldiers did the same.  
  
Max ran into an alley and leaned against the wall, looking down at his hands.  
  
It looked like he had blood on them.  
  
He again held his head as his eyes darted around, his lower lids twitching a little.  
  
His head started to hurt.  
  
He started to laugh a little. He wasn't sure why, but he just couldn't suppress it.  
  
Then it hit him; he had completely lost it.  
  
His laughter grew loud and maniacal as he tugged at his own fur a little, soon laughing so hard he was bringing himself to tears and could probably be heard blocks away.  
  
Then he remembered about Sam and Sophia.  
  
The first thought to cross his mind was to kill them. When he realized what he was thinking, he was a tad surprised by how little the thought disturbed him.  
  
He started to think about his dream.  
  
He found that it no longer freaked him out. In fact, if anything, it made him a little euphoric to see all the blood and injuries. He started to squirm a little - part of him wanted to make this dream a reality.  
  
He wanted to go find them.  
  
He remembered where Sophia said they'd be and teleported back to the base he'd last seen them at before searching around for a nearby school.  
  
He soon found it.  
  
He went inside and looked around, trying to act natural. "Sam? Sophia?"  
  
"We're in here!" Sophia called out.  
  
Max poked his head into the room they were in. "Hi," He purred in a strangely friendly manner.  
  
Sophia giggled happily as she ran over and hugged him tight.  
  
Sam saw the dead look that appeared on Max's face for a split second before the lagomorph mimicked his usual grin. "Sophia, can I talk to you in a different room for a minute?"  
  
Sam shook it off as Sophia walked with Max.  
  
Max took her to a different room out of Sam's earshot and locked the door after they entered.  
  
"What did you want to talk about, Max?" Sophia asked innocently.  
  
He couldn't help but let out a low, dark chuckle before he turned to face her. Looking into his eyes, it was hard to recognize him. He held his hands behind himself to hide the hammer he'd pulled out. "Turn around, Sophia. I have a surprise for you."  
  
"Okay, cousin." she smiled and closed her eyes as she turned around; fully trusting him.  
  
He raised the hammer above his head, about to bring the pointy part down on her head. Before he could even think about what he was about to do, his powers were forcing him to bring the hammer down.  
  
She yelped in pain as it was brought down on her head and she collapsed heavily to the floor.  
  
He opened the door, closing it behind him and locking it again with his powers to trap her inside in the case that she woke up. Putting the hammer away, Max returned to Sam.  
  
Sam looked over at Max. "Where's Sophia, Max?" he asked.  
  
"I told her that I wanted to talk to you in private now, so she agreed to stay in the other room." Max lied. Sam noticed the look in Max's eyes - it was unfamiliar and possibly even crazed.  
  
"Are you alright? You're not acting like yourself."  
  
"I'm fine, Sam." He said as he slowly approached. "I've never been better. Say, Sam?"  
  
"Yes, Max?"  
  
"What would you think about being completely alone with me?"  
  
"I don't mind, I guess."  
  
"Forever." He added with a dark look on his face, accompanied by a twisted smirk.  
  
Sam started to back away from him.  
  
"Just you and me, and no one else. For the rest of our lives, or rather, our life, because the day you die is the day I lose myself. What do you say, Sam?" Max asked as he approached with every step Sam took backwards.  
  
"Max, y-you're talking crazy!"  
  
Max stopped abruptly and his grin disappeared. "Crazy? Are you calling me crazy, Sam? I'll make you see things my way... even if I have to force it upon you!!" That said, Max started trying to use his powers to manipulate Sam's mind. He wanted to see if he could make Sam believe that his proposition had occurred, and that he was all alone with just Max, who had killed everyone.  
  
Sam yelled in pain as he held his head and fell to his knees.  
  
Soon Max figured he had done what he could, and so he stopped and waited in front of Sam.  
  
Sam just stayed where he was; his eyes wide and darting around as he crawled into a ball.  
  
"Sam?" Max knelt down a little to be closer to his eye level now, his grin back on his face.  
  
Sam just curled up more. It seemed that Max broke his mind when he forced his powers into it.  
  
"... S-... Sam...? Sam, come on, snap out of it..." Max gently put a hand on Sam's shoulder to shake him a bit.  
  
Sam whimpered liked a child and curled up tighter.  
  
Max took a step back and tried to reverse the changes he'd made.  
  
It wasn't working.  
  
"Sam...!" Max grabbed Sam by the chin and tried to force him to uncurl from the ball he'd made himself into. "Sam, come on, look at me! Don't you recognize me?! Sam!"  
  
He whimpered again and stayed in the ball.  
  
"SAM, LOOK AT ME!!" Max demanded harshly.  
  
He yelped in fear and shakily looked at him.  
  
Max stared into his eyes with a look of both madness and desperation. "Sam, come on... Don't you remember me? It's me, Max, your best buddy!"  
  
Max then noticed Sam's eyes were blank.  
  
"Sam... Sam, no, come on, snap out of it..." Max clung to his broken friend. "N-no..." He sounded traumatized in a way.  
  
Sam only whimpered.  
  
"Sam, I love you... Don't... Don't leave me alone... We can be broken together... right, Sam...?"  
  
He looked at him.  
  
The rabbit somehow managed to crawl into Sam's arms and had wrapped his own slender white arms around Sam's shoulders, burrowing his face into the shoulder of Sam's blazer.  
  
Sam slowly hugged him.  
  
"Sam...?" Max looked at him.  
  
Sam didn't say a word.  
  
Seeming a little hurt, Max buried his face back into Sam's shoulder and hugged him back.  
  
Now he was wishing he didn't do that to Sam.  
  
He kept mumbling to Sam rather incoherently, mostly repeating that he loved him and would be broken with him if necessary.  
  
"M-Max..."  
  
Max stopped and looked at him again.  
  
"Max..."  
  
"Yes, Sam...?"  
  
That was all Sam could say.  
  
"It's a start, Sam..."  
  
Max started to think about Sophia.  
  
His first thought was to take out his frustrations on her, but he didn't want to leave Sam alone, so instead he decided to try figuring out if she'd woken up or not with his powers.  
  
She hadn't moved at all. In fact, she looked like she wasn't breathing at all.  
  
"Sam, I have to go check something..." Max tried to get out of Sam's grip.  
  
Sam let go of him.  
  
Max looked at him. "I'll be right back, okay...? Just stay there..." After speaking gently to Sam, he left the room and went back to the room he'd left Sophia in.  
  
He saw the pool of blood that surrounded her head.  
  
"... Oh." was the only response he could muster at first. "... Geez, how hard did I hit her? Sophia?" He knelt next to her and shook her a little.  
  
She didn't move at all.  
  
He tried to read her mind, but in trying, he only managed to make the pain in his head worse, which in turn made him emit a short cry.  
  
Her mind was foggy and jumbled.  
  
It made him woozy just looking at it. Cringing with a hand on his head, Max gave up trying to find sense in her head and tried to think of what to do.  
  
Blood started to come out of her nose.  
  
"Oh crap, what do I do..." Max paced until the pain in his head made him collapse. Part of him beckoned for him to put an end to her here - break her mind like Sam's or rip her apart or even simply light her on fire. "No...!" He argued pathetically.  
  
She moaned as she slowly was waking up.  
  
Max didn't seem to notice. He curled up on the ground on his knees, clutching his head. "Shut up...! Stop...!" He growled at himself.  
  
His head stopped hurting and he finally snapped back to his senses.  
  
He slowly opened his eyes and turned to look at Sophia.  
  
Sophia groaned more as she opened her eyes; her vision very blurry.  
  
"Sophia...?"  
  
"M-... M-Max...?" she moaned.  
  
"Sophia! You're alive!" He held her gently.  
  
"Wh-what happened...?"  
  
"You, uh... slipped and hit your head." He lied.  
  
"I did...? So I-I missed my s-surprise...?"  
  
"It was nothing, really... Don't worry about that right now..."  
  
"Okay, Max." she said as she slowly got up; some of her fur covered in blood making it look like a dark pink.  
  
"I dunno if you should be getting up yet, Sophia..."  
  
"I'll be alright.."  
  
"Are you sure...?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Alright, I'll believe ya..."  
  
She smiled a bit.  
  
He tried to smile back.  
  
She tried to stand but wobbled a bit.  
  
"Just stay here, okay? I'm going to go check on Sam real quick."  
  
"Okay, Max."  
  
Max hurried out of the room and returned to Sam.  
  
Sam was finally out of the ball.  
  
"Hey Sam, I'm back..."  
  
"Max..."  
  
"Sam, Sophia's hurt."  
  
"S-Sophia... hurt..?"  
  
"Yeah. She needs help, Sam."  
  
"How h-help..?"  
  
"She, uh, hit her head pretty bad. There's blood everywhere." He shuddered a little with that statement, unable to hold back a brief grin. "What do I do?"  
  
"B-bandage.."  
  
He took off the bandage that had been wrapped around his own head wound this whole time. "Would this do?"  
  
Sam nodded.  
  
"Alright, I'll be back." Max ran back to Sophia.  
  
Sophia was sitting on the floor.  
  
"Let me bandage that wound up for you."  
  
"Okay, cousin."  
  
Max wrapped the bandage around her head.  
  
She winced a bit.  
  
He couldn't help but stare at the small pool of blood that had accumulated where her head had been.  
  
"Why is the room spinning a little...?" she moaned.  
  
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Max held up two fingers.  
  
"6...?"  
  
He put his hand down. "Uh... Maybe you should just try to rest."  
  
"Okay, cousin."  
  
"Just stay here... I'm gonna go check on Sam again, I guess..."  
  
She nodded a bit and laid down.  
  
Max returned to Sam again.  
  
Sam was just sitting on the floor.  
  
"Sophia's resting now."  
  
"Okay, Max."  
  
"Oh. Are you better now, Sam?" Max asked excitedly.  
  
"A little better."  
  
Max flung himself into Sam's arms. "I was so scared I'd lost you, Sam!"  
  
"You won't lose me, buddy." Sam hugged back.  
  
"Ever?" The lagomorph asked in a somewhat desperate tone, similar in someway to the 'forever' he'd added to one of his previous statements.  
  
Sam nodded.  
  
Max hugged him. He kept running the idea that 'Sam was his, forever', however mistaken it may or may not have been, through his mind.  
  
Sam hugged him back.  
  
Finally the thought clicked in Max's head. He grinned his widest grin at the so-called realization he'd come to.  
  
Sam looked at him; confused.  
  
Max simply snuggled against Sam a bit, keeping his wide grin. "I'm glad you see things my way now, Sam."  
  
He smiled a bit and hugged more.  
  
"We'll be together forever..."  
  
Sam nodded.  
  
"... alone."  
  
"What about Sophia...?"  
  
"I'm sure I can force her mother to take her back in." He said, adding extra emphasis to 'force'.  
  
Sam didn't like the sound of that.  
  
"Either that or I can just remove her from the picture the old fashioned way."  
  
Sam's eyes widened and quickly shook his head. "Don't kill her!"  
  
"I suppose that'd just make all my time spent taking care of her a waste, wouldn't it. I'd much rather use my first idea anyways."  
  
"Alright..."  
  
Max hugged him again before standing. "I'll go sort this out now."  
  
"Okay."  
  
Max left the room, went back to Sophia, and picked her up.  
  
She snuggled into him, still fast asleep.  
  
He teleported back to her mother's home and knocked on the door.


	19. So Long, Sophia

Sophia's mom opened the door and nearly screamed when she saw it was him.  
  
"I'm here to return your daughter to you."  
  
"Wh-why...?" she asked nervously.  
  
"Because she loves you."  
  
She slowly took the child.  
  
"Are you going to take good care of her?"  
  
She nodded quickly; afraid of what he could do to her otherwise.  
  
"Are you telling the truth, or are you just saying that so that I'll leave without hurting you?"  
  
She gulped in fear.  
  
"Well?" Max stepped forward.  
  
She stepped back.  
  
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Can't even fake a 'yes'? You disgust me. Do you know who I am?"  
  
She nodded rapidly.  
  
"Who am I, then?"  
  
"Max of the Freelance Police..."  
  
"You're right, but that's not the answer I'm looking for. Do you know who I am to you?"  
  
She looked confused.  
  
"I'm your cousin's son. I'm your cousin once removed. We're related."  
  
Her eyes widened as she backed up. "That can't be!"  
  
"How else could you explain how both you and I have these sharp teeth?" Max grinned. "My mother is your cousin."  
  
"H-how can that be...?"  
  
"My mother's been in the looney bin for as long as I can remember. But anyways, the point of this subject is that, even though you're family to me, I'm not afraid to hurt you."  
  
She whimpered and backed up.  
  
He stepped closer. "So are you going to take care of your daughter or not?"  
  
She nodded quickly.  
  
"Are you telling me the truth?"  
  
She nodded again.  
  
"Tell me what you feel about your daughter."  
  
She looked at Sophia and her once cold eyes softened to see her child so thin and dirty and injured. She gently held her close.  
  
"That's better."  
  
"I'm a horrible mother..."  
  
Max didn't argue. However, he also didn't noticably agree. "I guess I'll be leaving now, then."  
  
"You can come back and visit her.."  
  
He said nothing and teleported back to Sam.  
  
Sam was resting against a wall.  
  
"I'm back, Sam~."  
  
Sam opened his eyes a bit and smiled a little.  
  
Max smiled back.  
  
Sam fell back asleep.  
  
Max waited for him to wake up.  
  
He woke up 3 hours later.  
  
When he woke up, Max was still awake and watching him.  
  
Sam was startled by this.  
  
"Have a nice sleep, Sam?"  
  
"Yeah, I did."  
  
"I thought so. You looked so peaceful while you slept." Max said, suggesting he'd been doing nothing but watching Sam for the three hours he'd slept.  
  
"You watched me?"  
  
He nodded.  
  
"Why?"  
  
Max shrugged. "I love you, Sam, so I figured, what else is there for me to do?"  
  
"You... love me?"  
  
He nodded vigorously. "Isn't that what I've been saying?"  
  
"We've always been friends, but..."  
  
"... But?" Max goaded him to complete the statement.  
  
"I wasn't expecting that."  
  
"What do you mean?" The lagomorph seemed confused.  
  
"Well, we're best friends."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"I just wasn't expected to hear that."  
  
Max smiled, taking that as a good thing.  
  
Sam smiled a bit.  
  
"So... What now, Sam?"  
  
"I don't know, Max."  
  
Max quietly sat still.  
  
Sam stretched out.  
  
Max seemed rather bored.  
  
So was Sam. It seemed having Sophia around helped to deal with boredom.  
  
Max's head started to hurt a little again, but he tried to ignore it.  
  
He hated to think it but he missed her.  
  
He didn't want to go get her back though, so he tried to think about something else.  
  
But what?  
  
He tried to think only of Sam.  
  
But Sophia kept popping up in his mind.  
  
He pulled at his own ears a bit and growled at himself.  
  
He missed her.  
  
He growled at himself a little louder.  
  
He couldn't stop thinking of her.  
  
"Sam?"  
  
"Yeah, Max?"  
  
"What should we do?"  
  
"Dunno."  
  
Max frowned. "There's gotta be something to do."  
  
"I can't think of anything."  
  
The lagomorph grumbled. "How about we go outside or something?"  
  
"Alright."  
  
Max got up and walked for the door. His head was still hurting a little, and he didn't realize that in turning away from Sam, he'd 'accidentally' managed to set the end of his tie on fire again.  
  
Sam yelped as he rapidly hit the tie to put out the fire.  
  
Max whipped around. His eyes widened and he tried to put the fire out on his own, but only managed to make it consume the tie more. "Sam, take it off!"  
  
The dog tore off his tie and threw it to the ground before stomping on it.  
  
He couldn't extinguish it - it was as if Max were maintaining the flames.  
  
He kept trying to stomp it out.  
  
He was only managing to burn his feet.  
  
"I can't put it out!" he yelped.  
  
"Cut it out, Sam, before your pantlegs catch on fire too!" Max shouted, also unable to put it out despite the fire generally being of his will.  
  
Sam stopped and backed away from it.  
  
Max stared at it. "I dunno why, Sam... but I can't put it out. I didn't even ignite it, but I can tell that I must've made it... but I can't put it out."  
  
"Wonder why that happened."  
  
"Sam, I..." He wanted to mention what had happened back at the base, and how he'd lost control of his powers back there, but he hesitated.  
  
"What's wrong, little buddy?" Sam asked.  
  
Max laughed nervously. "It's... It's nothing, Sam..." He tried to avoid continuing.  
  
"Are you sure, Max?"  
  
"Yeah..." He said, but he couldn't help but avert his eyes from Sam's and look around a bit. His body language made it clear to Sam that he was holding something back.  
  
"What are you hiding from me?"  
  
"H-hiding from you? Nothing." Max had never been very good at lying.  
  
"I can tell when you're lying to me, Max."  
  
Though seeming incredibly hesitant, Max mumbled nearly under his breath, "I think I'm losing control of my powers."  
  
"I can't hear you."  
  
The lagomorph seemed to almost pale in a sense as he repeated in a small mutter, "I... think I'm losing control of my powers..."  
  
Sam's eyes widened.  
  
"I killed a man earlier, Sam... I couldn't stop myself from crushing him slowly and breaking his neck... I really didn't want to, Sam - I was screaming, he was screaming... and then he just... stopped. I couldn't move. It was like my powers were holding me there too... Something in the back of my head, Sam. I can still feel it. It told me to do it, but I refused."  
  
"Oh god..."  
  
"Sam, I don't know what to do... Deep down I feel like I want to set you on fire, but I don't want to do that. So... I'm refusing again. Last time I refused, my powers did it against my will..."  
  
"So far I'm not on fire."  
  
"Yeah, but your tie is, and if you hadn't got it off in time you would be too. Doesn't ease my mind any that all I managed to do was make the flames larger when I tried to put them out..."  
  
"You're just tired, Max. You need rest."  
  
Max narrowed his eyes a little at Sam, as if not believing it could be that simple. "You think this is because I'm tired?"  
  
"Think about it, Max. You stayed awake and only slept one time since this whole mess started."  
  
"Surely you jest! I must've slept more than that. Either that or I'm on some sort of permanent adrenaline rush from fear or something. Hee hee!"  
  
"There's your usual denial."  
  
"... You really think I need to sleep?"  
  
"I really do, buddy."  
  
Max couldn't seem to decide whether or not he wanted to sleep.  
  
"You should sleep."  
  
"I dunno about this, Sam... But I'll try if you want me to."  
  
"I want you to try."  
  
"Alright... I will, then."  
  
"Good." Sam smiled.  
  
Max sat down and leaned against a wall. He let out a small sigh, realizing just how exhausted he really felt.  
  
"I'll be right here for you."  
  
Max tried to go to sleep.  
  
Sam sat next to him.  
  
Max ended up leaning against him. He soon managed to doze off and started to dream.  
  
He was in their office.  
  
He looked around a bit. "S-... Sam?"  
  
"Yeah, Max?" Sam answered from the other room.  
  
Max walked into the room. "Are you in here?"  
  
He saw the dog sitting in a chair with a case file in his hands. "I'm right here."  
  
"Ooh, what case is that, Sam?"  
  
"Our latest one and you're not going to like it."  
  
"What is it? Do we have to investigate the ending of corndogs? Boy, I'd shoot myself if that were the case."  
  
"It's Sophia."  
  
Max paused. "... What about her?"  
  
"She snapped."  
  
"So?" The lagomorph didn't seem at all fazed by this information.  
  
Sam turned on the TV just as a news report came up about Sophia trashing everything in her path with her powers before making the reporter's head explode and smashing the camera.  
  
"Cool! I didn't know she could do that. Think I could do that, Sam?" Max actually seemed to applaud her madness.  
  
"Max, this is serious!"  
  
"It's not our problem anymore, Sam! We gave her back to her mother. It's her problem now, not ours. We're going to spend the rest of our lives alone together, remember?"  
  
"She killed her parents, Max! And we're ordered to take her down!"  
  
"To hell with our orders! We're not even freelance police anymore! The commissioner's dead, with how I shot him in the head and all..." Max snickered. "That was pretty fun."  
  
"A new commissioner took over and if you're not in, I'm going alone." The dog grumbled as he got out of the chair and grabbed his gun before going out.  
  
"Sam, wait up!" Max ran out after him.  
  
"Will you be okay to kill your cousin, Max?"  
  
Max gulped. "... I'm sort of hoping it won't come to that."  
  
"We'll have to. She's lost her rational mind."  
  
He shook his head. "No, I refuse to believe that. If her powers drove her completely insane, that would mean that mine could drive me completely insane too. So there was to be a way to pull her back to normal."  
  
"I'm not sure that's possible."  
  
"It has to be! If it isn't, then that means I'm not safe for you to be around."  
  
"Fine, we'll try it your way first."  
  
Max smiled a little. "Then let's go, Sam."  
  
The dog nodded and headed for a car. "Like the new car?"  
  
"Oh... We got a replacement for the DeSoto? Funny, you'd think I'd remember that."  
  
"I just got it. This is the first time you saw it."  
  
"Oh. It's a nice car." He said rather unenthusiastically, as if something were bothering him.  
  
"I know, I miss the old car too, Max." the dog said as he started the car and drove off.  
  
Having leaped into the passenger seat, Max looked at Sam. "Uh, that's not it, Sam. I mean, I do miss the DeSoto, but... that's not what's irking me."  
  
"Then what is?"  
  
"Well, for one, last thing I remember we were in that abandoned school together. Second, ... you seem... different, somehow. I don't feel like you're acting like yourself."  
  
Sam sighed. "Sorry, Max. I went after Sophia by myself and I paid for it..."  
  
"What do you mean? What did she do to you?"  
  
Sam stopped the car and took off his coat; revealing to Max that his right arm was metallic.  
  
Max's eyes widened. "I'll kill her."  
  
"Thought you wanted to try to reason with her."  
  
"I... I do, but... She hurt you, Sam. That's unforgivable."  
  
"It was my own fault. I was careless."  
  
"I thought you were the one who was all gung-ho for killing her, and yet you're trying to convince me not to kill her. Seems a little ironic, Sam." Max chuckled.  
  
"The thing is, Max, she's your family."  
  
"Yeah, so?"  
  
"She's one of the only ones you have left."  
  
"I still have my parents and you."  
  
Sam sighed as he drove the car.  
  
"You don't seem too happy, Sam."  
  
"I was kinda hoping you would talk me out of killing Sophia..."  
  
"Look, Sam, it's not that I want her dead, it's just that you seem so bent on killing her that I'm willing to join you if it makes you happy. If not, feel free to stop the car whenever you please."  
  
"I really don't want to kill her but she has to be stopped."  
  
"Then either we kill her or find another way. It's as simple as that, Sam."  
  
"I hope there is another way."  
  
"Sure there is."  
  
"Got any ideas?"  
  
"I still wanna see if I can pull her back to her senses."  
  
"Good luck."  
  
"Cheer up, Sam. Everything'll work out. Unless being around her when she's like this causes my powers to go haywire. In which case, oops."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"How much farther, Sam?"  
  
They then heard screaming and crashing nearby. "We're here." Sam said as he stopped the car.  
  
"Not very discreet, is she?" Max chuckled.  
  
"That's the least of our problems."  
  
"Well, I wasn't complaining. Come on, Sam, let's talk some sense into her." Max jumped out of the car.  
  
Sam nodded and got out of the car.  
  
Max started walking to try finding her.  
  
She was trashing the road.  
  
"Sophia!" He called out.  
  
She look over at him.  
  
"Sophia, relax. It's me, Max, your cousin."  
  
"You." she growled deeply and threw an icicle at him.  
  
He dodged it. "Whoa! Chill out! ... Erm, no pun intended."  
  
"How dare you show your face to me!"  
  
"What are you talking about? Of course I'd show up."  
  
"You caused this!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"You just had to give me back to my mother! She treated me like an animal! Like I was a freak that had to perform!"  
  
"She did, huh... I should've killed her when I had the chance."  
  
"You should have! She tortured me!"  
  
"Well, you are the one who convinced me not to kill her in the first place." Max countered.  
  
"Silence! You were so afraid of me taking your precious Sam, that you didn't care what happened to me!"  
  
"That's not true. I thought about you a little. I was going to beat the hell out of your mother but she seemed to be telling the truth when she said she'd take care of you."  
  
"Stop lying!!"  
  
"I'm not lying!"  
  
"It doesn't matter now. My child-like trust in others is destroyed now so everyone is my enemy!!" she shrieked and shot out ice and electricity around herself, destroying everything around her.  
  
"Sophia, don't make us follow our orders!" Max shouted as he tried to make an invisible shield around himself and Sam, hoping her electricity wouldn't pierce through it.  
  
Sophia growled as she used her powers to pound at Max's shield.  
  
Max held strong. "I'm warning you!"  
  
"Do you think I care anymore?!" she roared and pounded more.  
  
"Sam does, and well, I guess I do too!" Max tried to put more strength into the shield, making his head hurt.  
  
"Lies! All lies! Like when you said I fell and hit my head! I know it was you who hit me in the head with a hammer!!"  
  
As if her saying that in Sam's earshot had made him go feral, Max dropped the shields around himself and Sam, and proceeded to fling himself at Sophia, teeth bared.  
  
She growled as she bared her teeth slammed her fist into his face.  
  
He fell back briefly and grabbed her with his telekinesis. "Hold still." He snarled.  
  
She yelped as she struggled in his grip.  
  
"I'm gonna kill her, Sam." Max said menacingly as he walked closer to Sophia.  
  
"You really hit her with a hammer...? No wonder she snapped..." the dog shook his head.  
  
Max froze in his tracks, a shocked expression on his face as he unknowingly let Sophia go. He looked over his shoulder at Sam with the same expression. "Whose side are you on, Sam?"  
  
"I honestly don't know anymore. If you lied to Sophia... there's a chance you lied to me as well..."  
  
"What? Sam, I'd never lie to you! What could I possibly have lied to you about?"  
  
"About Sophia for one thing."  
  
"Well... I... That's a bit of a given, Sam, but I'd never lie to you about anything else!"  
  
"It always starts as one case but then you'll start to lie more and more. You weren't even going to tell me you lost control of your powers!"  
  
"I was scared, Sam! I thought you'd run away from me if I told you!"  
  
"So keeping it from me would make it any better?"  
  
"I figured you'd think I still had control and was just joking around!"  
  
"Max, you know I worry about you all the time."  
  
"I still told you, didn't I? I can't lie to you, Sam, even when I try!"  
  
Before Sam could say anything else, Sophia zapped Max with her powers.  
  
Max collapsed to his hands and knees, gritting his sharp teeth. "S-Sam!"  
  
Sam rushed to Max's side as Sophia sent another wave at Max but got Sam instead.  
  
"SAM!" Max shouted.  
  
Sam gave Max a thumbs up before he collapsed forward.  
  
Max hurried over to him and looked at Sophia furiously.  
  
"It was his own fault for interfering."  
  
Max tried to light her on fire, looking angrier than she'd ever seen him.  
  
She countered with her own shield.  
  
He lunged at her again, trying to pry apart the shield with his own powers.  
  
She kept the shield up.  
  
"Put that damned shield down so I can rip you apart!"  
  
"I won't!"  
  
"Then I'll just crush it!" Max used his powers to create a tightening grip around the shield.  
  
She gasped as it started to crack.  
  
Max continued to tighten his grip on it.  
  
It cracked more.  
  
Max grinned, seeing success in this tactic. "Any last words?"  
  
Sophia desperately tried to keep her shield up as a tear fell from her eyes.  
  
"I thought you didn't care whether I killed you or not." Max said sardonically.  
  
He could see she had true fear in her eyes as she tried to maintain her shield.  
  
For some reason, he seemed to mellow out a bit, and he go of her shield.  
  
She collapsed and panted heavily as her shield fell.  
  
"Syke." Max jumped onto her and raised his fist to hit her.  
  
She was barely awake.  
  
He raised his fist more, but then let his arm fall slack and sighed. "For some stupid reason, I can't bring myself to kill you."  
  
She then fainted.


	20. Another Nightmare

Max scoffed a bit and returned to Sam's side. "Sam? Sam, can you hear me?"  
  
Sam slowly opened his eyes a bit.  
  
Max smiled. "Thank god you're okay, Sam."  
  
"Back at ya, buddy." he smiled.  
  
"I dealt with Sophia."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"I was going to kill her, but for some reason I couldn't."  
  
"It's because she's family.."  
  
Max shrugged.  
  
A few officers came and picked up Sophia; placing a metal collar around her neck before putting her in their car.  
  
"Hey!" Max tried to hold the car in place. "Where do you think you're taking her?!"  
  
"She needs to pay for her crimes." replied one of the officers.  
  
"She's commit no crimes. It was my fault she snapped in the first place."  
  
"She did all this destruction."  
  
"Because of me."  
  
"That can't be proven."  
  
"Can't it? I hit her over the head with a hammer, took her to her mother, and she snapped."  
  
"Why do you care so much about what happens to her when you were so deadset on killing her?"  
  
"Because she's my family."  
  
"That doesn't matter. She still has to pay for all this."  
  
"Why don't you take me in instead?"  
  
"Because you can't prove it."  
  
"But I did kill the old commissioner."  
  
"That can't be proven either." the officer said as he got into the car.  
  
"It happened! I have powers just like her, and I was going to blow up the entire city, but instead I killed the old commissioner!"  
  
"That's just heresay." he said and started the car.  
  
"I can prove it!"  
  
"How?"  
  
Max tried to use his powers to show the officer his memories of killing the commissioner.  
  
But it failed.  
  
"What...? Why can't I..." He tried again.  
  
It failed again.  
  
"I-I... Why can't I show you it?!"  
  
The officer shrugged.  
  
"Then I'll just prove that I have powers like hers." He looked at a different officer and tried to light him ablaze.  
  
He yelped as his hat caught on fire.  
  
"See?" Max grinned.  
  
"We're not arresting you for having powers."  
  
"I killed a ton of soldiers with them!"  
  
"So?"  
  
"S-so?!"  
  
"Your record was wiped clean, remember?"  
  
"Wh-what...?"  
  
"Yeah, the new commissioner cleared it for you."  
  
"Just who is this new commissioner, anyways, huh?!"  
  
A car drove up and a tough looking woman cameout of it. "I'm the new commissioner."  
  
"Well, isn't that convienient. We were just talking about you." Max growled at her.  
  
"So what is the problem? I see you captured the subject."  
  
"Don't refer to her like she's just some sort of tool. I don't want you taking her in. We snapped her out of it. Let her go."  
  
"She's a danger to our city and needs to be locked away."  
  
"Then what am I, huh?! She's just like me!"  
  
"You're different. You use your powers to help the city."  
  
"What?! Since when have I ever done that?!" Max looked over at Sam. "Sam, talk some sense into this broad!"  
  
"She's talking about lately, Max." said Sam.  
  
"Look, lady." Max stepped closer to her and looked up at her, being a lot shorter than her. "If you don't let her go, I'll resign and kill each and every one of you."  
  
The commissoner scowled then sighed. "She's in your custody, Max. If she gets loose and does this again, it's on you."  
  
"That wasn't so hard now, was it?" Max smirked.  
  
"Don't push it." she grumbled and got back into her car.  
  
He looked back at the cops and gestured for them to hand Sophia over.  
  
They quickly got her out and handed her to Max.  
  
"Thank you~."  
  
They said nothing as they got back into their car and drove off.  
  
Max looked back at Sam.  
  
"I guess we'll be taking care of her." he said.  
  
"Guess so."  
  
Sophia moaned as she started to wake up.  
  
Max looked down at her.  
  
When she saw Max, she let out a choked scream and tried to get out of his grip.  
  
"Hold on, hold on!" He tried to restrain her with his powers. "Relax!"  
  
She whimpered as her eyes were wide with fear.  
  
"Sam, you talk to her. She isn't going to listen to me anymore."  
  
When she saw Sam she screamed louder and struggled more.  
  
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Max tightened his hold on her so she wouldn't escape. "Come on, relax! It's just Sam!"  
  
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!!" she cried over and over as she struggled more.  
  
"Okay, uh... This isn't going to work, Sam." He sort of gestured for his friend to back away.  
  
Sam's ears drooped as he backed off. Sophia slowly started to calm down.  
  
"You almost got arrested, Sophia, but I talked them into letting you go free."  
  
"Wh-why did you do th-that..? I thought y-you hated m-me... You w-wanted to kill m-me..."  
  
"I could've, too, but I couldn't for some reason. I guess I still care about you."  
  
"I don't d-deserve it..."  
  
"Don't try convincing me to kill you."  
  
She became slient.  
  
He grinned.  
  
She curled up a bit.  
  
"Come on, relax. Everything's okay now."  
  
She slowly looked up at him.  
  
"I won't hurt you so long as I don't have a reason."  
  
She smiled a bit.  
  
He returned the smile a little and looked over at Sam.  
  
He smiled a bit back.  
  
"We'd better split before something else happens."  
  
He nodded and went to the car.  
  
Max's head started to hurt, so he let Sophia move in his hold freely and tried to ignore the feeling.  
  
She slowly got up and walked on her own.  
  
Max stumbled a little and placed a hand on his head.  
  
"You okay?" she asked him.  
  
He nodded. "I'm just... I don't feel good..." He took his hand off his head and gazed at it.  
  
For a moment, it looked like it was covered in blood.  
  
He shuddered and yanked it out of his own view before trying to shake the feeling off.  
  
Sophia slowly placed a hand on his shoulder.  
  
Startled, he whipped his head around to look at her with wide eyes.  
  
"Eep! Sorry!" she cowered in fear.  
  
Max's only response was to clutch his head and groan quietly.  
  
She quickly ran for the car and cowered in the back seat.  
  
Max let go of his head and looked at both of his hands now.  
  
Nothing was on them.  
  
Still feeling strange and feeling pain in his head, Max slowly went over to the car.  
  
Sam helped him in.  
  
He tried to act natural, but he had a wild look in his eyes as he sat in the passenger seat.  
  
"Are you alright?" Sam asked him as he got into the driver's seat.  
  
"Yeah, I'm... I'm fine, Sam..."  
  
"If you're sure."  
  
Max fell silent.  
  
Sam started the car and drove off.  
  
Something in the back of Max's head told him to light Sam on fire, and in response to it he curled up on the seat and tugged on his ears. "Shut up..." He growled quietly at himself.  
  
Sam didn't notice.  
  
The thought-demand only grew louder for Max as he tugged harder at his ears. "Shut up, I won't...!" He snarled a little louder.  
  
"What's wrong, Max?"  
  
"S-Sam..." He choked out. "M-my powers..."  
  
"What about your powers?"  
  
Max suddenly set fire to a nearby tree in an attempt to compromise with the desire in the back of his head, but it wouldn't stop nagging him.  
  
Sam yelped in surprise.  
  
Max curled up more, clutching his head again. "I-it wants me to set you on fire, S-Sam...!"  
  
Sophia managed to get the collar off her and put it around Max's neck since it blocked her powers.  
  
The pain in Max's head slowly became nothing more than a dull ache as the tree extinguished itself.  
  
"You okay now?"  
  
"Y-yeah..."  
  
"That's good."  
  
"But now I can't use my powers at all."  
  
"Yeah, but now you won't set Sam on fire."  
  
"I guess..."  
  
"Besides, I can use my powers now."  
  
"You could've either way by just taking off the collar, couldn't you?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Max looked back at Sam.  
  
"We'll think of something, Max." Sam said.  
  
"I hope so, Sam..."  
  
Sam drove them back to their office.  
  
Once there, Max stepped out of the car.  
  
Sophia then hopped out.  
  
Max still seemed a tad nervous, though he hid it well.  
  
"So what are we going to do now?" she asked.  
  
Not having an answer to that question, Max looked up at Sam.  
  
Sam looked back at them. "I guess we just hang out in the office for now."  
  
"Alright, Sam." Max half-heartedly agreed with that 'plan.'  
  
"Well, we could do some target practice if you want to, Max." Sam smirked; knowing how Max loves to shoot things.  
  
Slowly, Max's oh-so-typical grin returned to his face in response to the offer.  
  
The dog chuckled. "I knew that would rise your spirits."  
  
"You know me so well, Sam." Max giggled.  
  
"I should. We've been friends since we were kids."  
  
"Don't get logical on me." The lagomorph joked.  
  
Sophia giggled as she watched the two friends do comebacks at one another as they walked to the pratice range they had on the other side of the office.  
  
"Let's see which one of us can down the most targets, huh, Sam?"  
  
"Oh, you're on." chuckled Sam.  
  
Max readied his luger.  
  
Sam took out his gun.  
  
"Whenever you're ready, Sam."  
  
"I'm ready, Max."  
  
"Ready, set... FIRE!" Max started shooting wildly.  
  
Sam started to fire at the targets as well.  
  
Eventually, Max stopped. Their firing had created a rather convienent fog in front of the targets, so Max narrowed his eyes and waited to see who had knocked more targets over.  
  
Max had the most.  
  
"Better luck next time, Sam." Max grinned as he put his luger away, back to god knows where.  
  
"Oh damn! And I was so close this time too!"  
  
"Kind of wish we'd bet on something."  
  
"Guess we'll do that next time."  
  
Max smiled.  
  
"There's the Max I know." Sam smiled back.  
  
"And there's the Sam I know!" Max giggled.  
  
Sam chuckled a bit. "What do you want to do now?"  
  
The lagomorph shrugged.  
  
Just then Sophia's stomach growled a bit.  
  
"I guess we should get some food." Max suggested.  
  
"Good idea. Wanna order out?"  
  
Max only shrugged.  
  
"Let's get pizza." smiled Sophia.  
  
"We got enough money, Sam?"  
  
"Yeah, we do, since we got paid after our last job."  
  
"Alright, then let's get some pizza."  
  
"Yay!" Sophia cheered.  
  
Max looked up at Sam.  
  
"What kind should we get?" he asked.  
  
"I dunno, Sam." Max replied casually.  
  
"Extra cheese please!" Sophia giggled.  
  
"I can work with that. What do you say, Sam?"  
  
"Fine by me." said Sam.  
  
"Alright then, let's order!" Max grinned.  
  
Sam picked up the phone and ordered the pizza.  
  
Max gazed out the window, his back turned to both Sam and Sophia. For once, he was finally feeling like his old self...  
However, there was no one outside, which was strange for New York, even in their neighborhood. The streets looked almost abandoned.  
"What the hell...? Where is everyone? Why is there... is that blood? Why is there blood everywhere?"  
  
"What's wrong, cousin?" asked Sophia.  
  
"Look outside. Everyone's gone, and there's blood everywhere!"  
  
"I know. Isn't it beautiful~?" she grinned insanely.  
  
"You concern me sometimes. Sam, are you getting a signal?" Max turned to face Sam.  
  
"Nope. The phone's dead." the dog replied.  
  
"What just happened? It wasn't like this a moment ago... Sophia, are you okay? You look rather disheveled..."  
  
"What does that mean?" she asked with the grin still on her face.  
  
"I dunno. Sam, what does disheveled mean? ... Never mind. What I'm trying to say is that you don't look like yourself. Sam, does Sophia look alright to you?"  
  
"She is looking kinda creppy..."  
  
"... Sophia, can I talk to you alone in the other room?"  
  
"Okay~." she grinned.  
  
Max left the room, but kept his eye on Sophia as he did so.  
  
She followed him; giggling insanely.  
  
"Sophia, what's up?"  
  
"What do you mean~?"  
  
"What happened outside? Do you know?"  
  
"Yes~. I killed them~."  
  
"What? Why'd you do that?"  
  
"Because it was fun~."  
  
Max was quiet.  
  
"What's wrong, cousin~?"  
  
"Nothing." Though he was a little unnerved by her sudden onset of violent psychosis, Max couldn't really complain just so long as she didn't hurt Sam.  
  
"Now what to do to Sam...~" she giggled.  
  
"H-hey, you leave Sam out of this."  
  
"Aw, you're no fun.~" she pouted creeply.  
  
"You can do whatever you want as long as you don't hurt Sam."  
  
"Yay~!"  
  
Max just had to hope that those words wouldn't come back to haunt him. He was forgetting that there was a loophole in his words: so long as Sam wasn't hurt in the process, he could still be killed...  
  
She ran out giggling insanely.  
  
Or, if she could work it out, she could even make Max hurt Sam.  
Max watched her run out and quickly went to Sam's side.  
  
She went outside and started to torture animals.  
  
Max managed to watch from a window. "Sam, I'm a little worried about Sophia."  
  
"So am I, Max."  
  
"What should we do?"  
  
"Wish I knew."  
  
"... She was gonna hurt you, Sam."  
  
"What? Why would she do that?"  
  
"I dunno. I told her that she could do anything as long as she didn't hurt you, but..."  
  
"Dammit, Max! Telling her that wasn't the best idea! She could make someone else kill me!"  
  
"Well then, I'll protect you."  
  
"I just hope you can."  
  
"Of course I can! It's not like I'll be the one killing you."  
  
"Not so loud! She might hear you."  
  
"She couldn't make me even if she did hear."  
  
"Oh yes I can~!" she giggled and used her powers to make him move against his will.  
  
His eyes widened a little as he tried to resist and play it off like everything was fine.  
  
  
She made her hold on him stronger.  
  
"S-Sam..."  
  
Sophia cackled as she made Max move against his will and towards Sam who she had paralyzed.  
  
"N-no!" Max struggled harder to resist.  
  
Just as she made Max plunge his hand into Sam's chest to rip out his heart, he woke up from the nightmare.  
  
He jolted up with a scream back in the abandoned school, utterly horrified.  
  
Sam jumped awake with a yelp. "Max, what's wrong?" he asked.  
  
"I knew it wasn't a good idea to try sleeping..." Max droned as he curled up a bit.  
  
"Did you have a nightmare?"  
  
He nodded a little.  
  
"It's probably from all the stress you've been under lately."  
  
"It was so happy, and then suddenly..." He shook his head.  
  
"I got killed, didn't I?"  
  
"Yeah, by me..."  
  
"Oh geez..."  
  
The lagomorph gazed at the hand he had impaled Sam's chest with in the nightmare.  
  
It was a bit dirty but otherwise clean and free of blood.  
  
"If I kill Sophia now, I won't have to worry about it happening..." He mumbled to himself.  
  
"What are you mumbling about?" asked Sam.  
  
"I know how to make sure the nightmare won't be able to happen."  
  
"How?"  
  
"You know, we should go visit Sophia." Max tried to make it seem like he was changing the subject, when really he was vaguely giving Sam an answer.  
  
"Alright. I've been wondering how she was doing anyway."  
  
Max held out his hand. "Let's teleport there."  
  
Sam nodded and took Max's hand.  
  
He teleported himself and Sam to the home of Sophia's mother and knocked on the door, his grin on his face again.  
  
Sophia's mother opened the door and was startled to see him there. "I-I've been taking care of my daughter!" she squeaked.  
  
"You said we could come back and visit her from time to time."  
  
"I-I did?"  
  
He nodded. "You did." He looked vaguely impatient.  
  
"Then please come in."  
  
Max walked in. "Where is she?"  
  
"Playing with her dolls in her room."  
  
He tried to see if he could use his powers to set her room ablaze from there.  
  
He could hear Sophia suddenly scream in fear.  
  
He couldn't help but grin wider at the sound.  
  
Sophia's mother rushed to her room and tried to go in to save her.  
  
"Well, that's that. Let's go, Sam." Max turned to leave.  
  
"What did you do?" Sam demanded.  
  
"I set her room on fire." Max said with his typical grin as he looked up at Sam. "She was gonna make me kill you. Now she can't, 'cause she's probably already dead or dying. There's nothing left for us here, so let's go before the whole house crumbles down over our heads." He said this happily as the curtains on a window behind him also combusted. He was planning to burn the whole house down.  
  
"You're insane!" Sam growled and ran towards Sophia's room to help.  
  
"Sam!" Max tried to hold him in place with his powers and pull him back.  
  
He grunted as he struggled against Max's powers. "Let me go! She's just a child!"  
  
"It's not safe to stay in here! She has to die, and we have to get out of here!"  
  
"Max, it was just a nightmare! It wasn't going to happen!!"  
  
"I didn't hear you telling me that before! It doesn't matter anymore, anyways!" He yelled back as he started pulling Sam along out of the burning house.  
  
Sam's ears drooped as he heard the frightened screams from Sophia and her mother.  
  
"What's done is done. Now nothing can hurt us, Sam."  
  
"Let go of me. NOW." he said flatly.  
  
With a bit of hesitance, Max released him.  
  
Sam stared at the burning house with tears in his eyes.  
  
"Sam... Everything's going to be okay now."  
  
"No, it's not... You just killed an innocent child and her mother to 'protect' me from something that happened in a nightmare. Now I have to live with that fact until the day I die..." he said sadly as he hung his head.  
  
"Sam, I don't plan to sit back and let you die, ever."  
  
"Just leave me alone, Max. Just stop..."  
  
"But Sam..." Max walked over and hugged his leg. "I love you, remember?"  
  
"The feeling isn't mutual right now, Max..."  
  
"..." Max quietly let go of Sam's leg. The fire destroying the house seemed to die a little.  
  
Sam kept staring at the now destroyed house in sadness.  
  
As if seeing how miserable Sam looked changed anything, Max completely extinguished the fire.  
  
Sam slowly looked at him.  
  
"... It's too late, isn't it?"  
  
Sam just shrugged.  
  
Max walked over to the destroyed house and tried to see if he could sense any life with his powers.  
  
He could sense two very weak flickers of life.  
  
"SAM! SAM, THEY'RE ALIVE!" He shouted.  
  
Sam quickly looked at him. "Really?!"  
  
"Help me find them!" Max started searching for them.


	21. I Love You, Sam

Sam quickly ran over and started trying to find them too.  
  
Soon Max was able to find them. "Sam, they're here!"  
  
He hurried over and gently lifted Sophia out. Her little dress was ruined by the fire and parts of it was gone. Her fur was severely singed and patches of it was missing.  
  
"I could hold her."  
  
"You've done enough to her, Max."  
  
"... You're sure you can carry both her and her mother?"  
  
Sam sighed and gently handed him the child.  
  
"Uh... Sam, how are we going to help them, anyways?"  
  
"Simple. We take her car."  
  
"And go where?"  
  
"To a hospital."  
  
"You sure that's a good idea, Sam?"  
  
"Do you have a better idea?"  
  
"Well, no..."  
  
"Then we'll do my plan."  
  
"But... the government's still against us, you know."  
  
"We can handle them."  
  
"So you want me to kill them?"  
  
"Only if there's no other way."  
  
"We already know there isn't."  
  
Sophia whimpered as she tried to open her eyes.  
  
"I might as well just teleport us to the hospital."  
  
"It'll be quicker." said Sam.  
  
"Grab onto me, Sam."  
  
Sam grabbed hold of his arm.  
  
Max teleported them to the hospital.  
  
The nurses gasped as they saw the burnt rabbits and quickly took them to be treated.  
  
"Maybe we should get the hell out of dodge for a bit, Sam." Max suggested.  
  
"Let's wait a bit until we know they'll be alright."  
  
"... At this rate, the nightmare could still happen..." Max said nervously.  
  
"Max, relax. It won't happen."  
  
"You never know, Sam..."  
  
"You just need to relax."  
  
"When have I ever relaxed, Sam?"  
  
"Never, I guess."  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"But you need to relax this time."  
  
"I can't."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"I keep picturing what I did to you in the nightmare, Sam."  
  
"Max, I told you it's not gonna happen."  
  
"But it might."  
  
"You have got to stop thinking that, Max."  
  
"But then what if it happened?" It seemed Max was too concerned for his own good.  
  
"Enough, Max! Stop thinking about it!"  
  
Max went quiet.  
  
A nurse came out to them. "You may see them now." she said.  
  
"I'll follow behind you, Sam."  
  
The dog nodded and walked in. Sophia and her mother shared the same room and both had bandages on most of their bodies.  
  
Max was fairly quiet as he stared at what he'd done. It was hard to tell if he was ashamed or proud.  
  
Sophia groaned as she opened her eyes and looked at Max.  
  
Max averted his eyes briefly before looking back at her.  
  
She slowly reached out for him.  
  
Reluctantly, he cautiously held out his hand toward hers.  
  
Sophia weakly snuggled into him.  
  
Max seemed rather nervous just being around her, though he didn't exactly deny this gesture of affection.  
  
"Wh-why, Max...?"  
  
Max simply averted his eyes. "Well... I..." He cleared his throat.  
  
She looked at him with painfilled eyes.  
  
Max looked over at Sam as if pleading for him to change the subject for him.  
  
Sam only crossed his arms.  
  
Max stammered a bit. "W-well, I... Uh... It..." He couldn't seem to spit it out.  
  
"Just say it!" yelled Sam.  
  
Max flinched at the sound of Sam's yell. "I had a nightmare, and... and I thought I could stop it from happening for real..."  
  
Sophia's eyes became wide and she let Max go.  
  
Max took this opportunity to back up, only to back up right into Sam.  
  
"Leave. Both of you. Now." she said as she looked away from them.  
  
"A-... At least hear Sam out. He had no idea what I was going to do. He saved you from me!" Max protested.  
  
"Get out NOW!" she yelled as tears flowed from her eyes.  
  
Max quickly left the room, startled by her raised voice.  
  
Sam walked out behind him. "You really did it this time, Max."  
  
Max scoffed a bit. "She'll come around."  
  
"I doubt it. You tried to kill her and her mother all because of a nightmare!"  
  
"Well, who needs them, then?"  
  
"That's a shame. She could've been a great help to us."  
  
"How so?"  
  
"Well her powers for one when and if we start our business again."  
  
"We can do that on our own, Sam!"  
  
"I guess that's the case now."  
  
Max smiled. "So we get to be alone together again?" He actually seemed strangely happy to have removed any 'obstructions' from their relationship.  
  
"Yeah." Sam sighed.  
  
Max's typical grin returned to his face. "Sweet! Well then, Sam, let's get out of here!"  
  
Sam looked back at Sophia's room before walking with Max.  
  
It seemed like Max was completely over everything that had happened as of late.  
  
Too bad Sam couldn't say the same.  
  
"What should we do now, Sam?"  
  
"I guess we go back to our place."  
  
Max inexplicably jumped up onto Sam's back. "Let's go then, Sam!"  
  
Sam grunted a bit and continued to walk.  
  
Max only continued to smile as he did so.  
  
As Sam walked all he could think about was Sophia.  
  
It was almost insulting how easily Max was able to act as if nothing had happened.  
  
"Sometimes I think you don't even have feelings, Max..." he grumbled.  
  
"I try to have some for your sake, Sam."   
  
Sam rolled his eyes.  
  
"Come on, cheer up! We're free!"   
  
"What do you mean free?"  
  
"Well, it's just you and me again."  
  
"You're a real piece of work, Max." he grumbled as he dropped Max off his back.  
  
"What? It's true."   
  
"It's no wonder people wants us dead. Because everytime we get close to someone you try to kill them so it would just you and me."  
  
Max responded only by grinning up at Sam.   
  
"Why are you grinning like that?"  
  
"Love ya, Sam."   
  
"Okay... You're being creepy."  
  
"Thanks," Max took that as being a compliment, "But aren't you going to say you love me too?"  
  
"Kind of hard to love someone who kills and hurts everyone around him!"  
  
"But you still love me, don't you, Sam?"   
  
"Yeah..." he sighed.  
  
"I knew it." The hyperkinetic rabbity thing cooed.    
  
The dog sighed again.  
  
"I'm just glad that you don't hate me, Sam."   
  
"Well, you're my friend, Max."  
  
An odd sort of expression came over Max's face.  
  
Sam started to get creeped out.  
  
"Is that all I am to you? A friend?"    
  
"Y-yeah."  
  
This seemed to make Max rather frustrated. "W-... Well, whatever happened to me being your 'best buddy?'"   
  
"You're still that."  
  
"I can't be just a friend AND your best buddy, Sam."    
  
"They're the same thing, Max."  
  
Max's smile disappeared. "... Wh-... What do you mean, they're the same thing...? So, all this time... I've been 'just a friend' and nothing more...?"    
  
"What are you getting at, Max?" asked Sam.  
  
"Well, I... I just thought we were... more than that, I guess, Sam..."    
  
"More? What are you trying to say?"  
  
The lagomorph didn't respond.  
  
"Max?"  
  
"No, it's... It's nothing, Sam..."  
  
"You sure?"  
  
Though he nodded, he looked rather miserable.  
  
"You don't look so good."  
  
"It doesn't matter..."  
  
"It does too matter."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because you're my little buddy."  
  
Max's only response was a bittersweet smirk.  
  
"You'll always be my little buddy."  
  
This didn't seem to be making anything better for Max. "... Thanks, Sam... Uh, we're back at our place now. Are you tired, Sam?" He asked, changing the subject.  
  
"Maybe a little tired."  
  
"You should get some sleep."  
  
"Will you be okay?"  
  
"Yeah. ... Yeah, just... Just go to sleep, Sam..."  
  
Sam went to the bedroom to sleep.  
  
Max waited until he thought Sam was asleep to walk in.  
  
Sam was fast asleep.  
  
Max quietly stepped closer and looked down upon his sleeping face.  
  
He looked like he was having a nice dream.  
  
Curiously, the lagomorph slowly brought his face closer until he found himself gently pressing his lips against his friend's.  
  
Sam sleepily moaned a bit.  
  
Max didn't move; he simply remained standing over Sam and silently kissing him.  
  
He moaned a bit more.  
  
Flustered, Max abruptly pulled back. He didn't know why he wanted to do that so bad, nor did he know why doing it made his little heart race.  
"Alright, Max," He mumbled to himself. "You're losing it."  
  
Sam continued to sleep peacefully.  
  
Still, Max stared at Sam and thought about doing it again. "Would he wake up if I did...?" He muttered to himself.  
  
He snuggled into his pilow.  
  
His heart pounding in his chest, Max cautiously kissed Sam again.  
  
Sam sleepily kissed back.  
  
Max pulled away again, this time rougher, as the returned gesture not only surprised him but also gave him a strange sensation, almost as if he'd been zapped lightly.  
  
Sam was still sleeping peacefully.  
  
"Okay... Okay, I should stop. ... But, then again... This doesn't feel entirely unpleasant..." He shook his head feverishly. "No, I've gotta stop."  
  
Sam smiled a bit as he slept.  
  
Max left the room and decided to just wait until whenever Sam woke up on his own.   
  
He didn't have to wait long for he heard Sam yawn and get out of bed.  
  
"Alright, Max, just play it natural..." Taking a breath to try calming himself, he walked into the room. "Hey, Sam."  
  
"Hey, Max."  
  
"How, uh, how did you sleep?"  
  
"I slept good."  
  
"Do you remember anything unusual happening in your dream or something?"  
  
"No, I don't. Why?"  
  
"... Oh. Uh, n-no reason."  
  
"Okay then." he said as he went to the bathroom.  
  
"Uh, Sam, I--..." Max cut himself off.  
  
"What is it, Max?"  
  
His nervousness showed on his face as he stammered, "Nothing."  
  
"You sure? You sound and look nervous."  
  
"It's something even you wouldn't understand, Sam..."  
  
"Try me."  
  
"I, uh..." Max gestured to his own lips. "I... You... While you were sleeping, I..." He cleared his throat, seemingly unable to find the word he was looking for.  
  
"Just say it, Max."  
  
"I... kissed you..."  
  
Sam's beady eyes widened.  
  
"... Twice."  
  
Sam stuttered a bit.  
  
"... Are you... upset?"  
  
"I-I'm just shocked..."  
  
"I dunno what was going through my head to make me wanna kiss you the first time, but... I did, and... Well, you get the point."  
  
Sam didn't know what to say.  
  
Neither did Max.  
  
"You kissed me twice.."  
  
"Yeah, I did..."  
  
"Whoa.."  
  
"Uh... The second time I kissed you... You, um, you kissed back..."  
  
Sam's eyes widened more.  
  
"It startled me, heh heh..."  
  
Sam was too shocked to speak.  
  
"... Maybe you should sit down."  
  
Sam slowly sat down.  
  
"..." Max was quiet.  
  
"Wh-what do we do now...?"  
  
"You usually decide that, Sam..."  
  
"I don't know what to do about this..."  
  
"Well... What are you thinking?"  
  
"Just trying to make sense out of this..."  
  
"There is no sense to be had..."  
  
"Guess you're right."  
  
"... What, uh... I... Well, how, uh... How do you feel about... Other than shocked, I mean..."  
  
"I guess... It felt right..."  
  
Max's eyes widened a bit. "It felt... right...?"  
  
Sam slowly nodded.  
  
"... I... When I kissed you, though, it made me feel like my heart was gonna explode. Then... when you kissed back, it was like a got shocked."  
  
"It did?"  
  
Max nodded.  
  
"Wow..."  
  
"What?"  
  
"It realy felt like that?"  
  
"Yeah. Why, does that mean something?"  
  
"It means you love me..."  
  
"Well, we already knew that, Sam." It seemed as if Max still didn't understand the full meaning of the word 'love.'  
  
"No, Max. This is different."  
  
"Different? I don't get it, Sam."  
  
Sam tried to explain.  
  
The more he said, the more shocked Max looked, and the more Max's face flushed.  
  
"Now do you understand?"  
  
"... Not really, Sam. This kind of stuff only happens between guys and ladies."  
  
"Sometimes this happens with 2 guys and 2 girls."  
  
"It does?"  
  
"Yeah, it does."  
  
"... So... Do... Do you... feel like that for me?"  
  
"M-maybe a bit.."  
  
"... What should we do about this?"  
  
"I-I don't know..."  
  
Max was quiet again.  
  
So was Sam.  
  
The lagomorph cleared his throat.  
  
The dog looked at him.  
  
"Maybe for now we should just... change the subject... or something, huh, Sam?"  
  
"Y-yeah, Max."  
  
"Uh..." It didn't seem that the rabbit had anything else to talk about.  
  
Suddenly Sam's tie tightened itself around Sam's neck and started to choke the dog.  
  
Max's eyes widened. "Sam?!" He tried to use his own powers to loosen the tie.  
  
He managed to get it loose as Sam coughed to get air back into his lungs.  
  
"Did... Did I do that...?"  
  
"I-I don't think so..." he wheezed.  
  
Max didn't seem completely convinced.  
  
"It like a child was playing with me..."  
  
Max narrowed his eyes. "Sophia..."  
  
"You really think she did this?"  
  
"She would, wouldn't she?"  
  
"I really don't know."  
  
Max's eyes narrowed. "I should've killed her when I had the chance."  
  
"Now, Max, we're not even sure it was her."  
  
"Who else could it have been, Sam? Me?"  
  
"Even if it was her, she might've not known she was using her powers."  
  
"She's still dangerous."  
  
"That's because you broke her trust!"  
  
"Because she intimidated me!"  
  
"But that was only in your dream!"  
  
"She made me scared for your safety the same way I make myself scared for your safety!"  
  
"Max, that was because of your nightmare! She helped us when we had those soldiers after us!"  
  
"We couldn't trust her!" He said in a nervous way, a quivering smile spread across his face.  
  
"I could say the same about you!"  
  
"You can trust me, Sam. I just don't know if I can trust me."  
  
"If you want to confront Sophia, go ahead. Just don't look for me here when you get back."  
  
"Sam... I just want to keep you safe."  
  
"I'm so sick of that! I don't need to be protected like a weak child all the time!" the dog growled.  
  
Max didn't seem to know how to respond to that.  
  
"Do you really think I can't protect myself?"  
  
"That's... That's not it."  
  
"Then what?"  
  
"I just... I want to help protect you from threats you might not be able to recognize, like Sophia."  
  
"Sophia wasn't a threat until you burned her home down and nearly burned her and her mother to death! She was just an innocent child with powers like you who wanted to be like her big cousin and be part of our team!"  
  
"Your point? MY point is that Sophia became a threat. One day, Sam, I might too. But until then, I wanna keep you away from other liabilities."  
  
"You're already a threat!"  
  
"I meant to you."  
  
"You are! You keep killing or almost killing anyone who gets close to me!"  
  
"Because they're threats, and I love you, Sam."  
  
"Not everyone!"  
  
"I know, but..."  
  
"But nothing! Some of the people you hurt were friends of ours!"  
  
"I'm... not a threat, though..."  
  
"Yes, you are!"  
  
"I would never physically hurt you."  
  
"You tried before."  
  
"But I wouldn't have gone through with it."  
  
Sam sighed and shook his head.  
  
"Sam..."  
  
Sam looked over at him.  
  
"I'm sorry, alright? I'm a mess, I know that. I'm probably crazy like my parents. But I care about you; maybe too much, but I do."  
  
"Then go see Sophia and try to mend things with her."  
  
Max furrowed his brow and slowly shook his head.  
  
"Max, if you care for me like you said you'll do this."  
  
The lagomorph seemed uncertain, though not unwilling.  
  
"Max..."  
  
"I dunno about that, Sam..."  
  
"Just try."  
  
"I might hurt her."  
  
"Max."  
  
"I'm just saying."  
  
"Just try, Max."  
  
"Will you forgive me even if it goes wrong?"  
  
"I guess."  
  
"... Fine. I... I'll try."  
  
"Good."  
  
Max still seemed a tad concerned.  
  
But he had to do this or Sam wouldn't forgive him.  
  
With a heavy sigh, Max seemed to succumb. "Alright, fine, let's just get this over with, Sam."  
He held his hand out for Sam to hold so they could teleport to Sophia.  
  
Sam handed him his hand.  
  
Holding the dog's hand rather tightly, Max teleported them back to where they had left Sophia.


	22. Voodoo Magic

Sophia was heavily wrapped in bandages for her bad burns and sitting in her hospital bed.  
  
Max slowly walked closer. "Um..."  
  
Sophia looked at him with a glare. "What do you want? Going to try to kill me again? Or my mother?"  
  
"Er, no, I..." With that glare from her, all of Max's confidence seemed to slip away.  
  
"Then why are you here?"  
  
"To... uh... What am I here to do again, Sam?"  
  
Sam sighed. "You were accusing her of throwing me around like a doll!"   
Sophia's eyes narrowed angerly. "I did no such thing!" she cried.  
  
"Well, if you didn't do it, then who did? Me?"  
  
"All I was doing was holding this doll of Sam I was going to give to him! Before you did this to me!"  
  
"Oh, okay, so now you can perform black magic Voodoo stuff. Sam, this just keeps getting better and better."  
  
"I DO NOT!" she screamed at him and threw the doll of Sam at him and to her shock Sam was sent flying right at Max.  
  
Using his powers, Max stopped both Sam and the doll in mid-air. "Ah-ha! I knew it! It's Voodoo."  
  
Sophia just sat there in shock.  
  
Trying his best not to crush his friend, as was his first instinct, Max put Sam down.  
  
"I... I..." stammered Sophia.  
  
"Now, what to do with this doll." Max held the doll in his hands, and as he did, he glanced at Sam with a rather mischievous look in his beady brown eyes.  
  
"What are you thinking...?" Sam asked nervously.  
  
Max started trying to tickle the doll.  
  
Nothing happened.  
  
The lagomorph grunted quietly in disapproval of the doll.  
  
"Guess only Sophia can do it."  
  
"How boring."  
  
Sophia curled up a bit on her bed.  
  
"You got anything to say for yourself?"  
  
"I didn't know I could do that..." she whimpered in a quiet voice.  
  
"Do you believe her, Sam?" Max asked skeptically.  
  
"I believe her, Max." Sam replied.  
  
"Wait, really?"  
  
"Really. Look at her. She's scared of herself now."  
  
"Well, she should be."  
  
She whimpered as she curled up more.  
  
"So then, Sam, what do you reckon we do with her?"  
  
"Max, we should just let her be."  
  
"What?! Are you crazy, Sam?"  
  
"I'm not."  
  
"Why should we let her be? We need to make sure nothing like this happens again."  
  
Sophia whimpered again; now really afraid.  
  
Noticing Sam's scolding silence, Max sighed. "Fine, we'll leave her - for now. But what do we do with this doll?"  
  
"Well it's useless now."  
  
"How can we be so sure about that?"  
  
"You just proved it."  
  
"But what if it somehow falls into the wrong hands, huh?"  
  
"Max, only Sophia can use it."  
  
"Still can't be a hundred percent sure of that."  
  
Sam grumbled a bit.  
  
"What if we burned the doll?"  
  
"Whatever."  
  
Max tried to use his powers to set the doll on fire.  
  
It burst into flames.  
  
He watched it burn with a twisted satisfaction in his eyes.  
  
"You might as well burn the doll I made for you, Max..." Sophia sniffled.  
  
Max quietly looked at her, as if daring her to test whether or not it could be used to manipulate him.  
  
She just pointed to her bag where the doll was.  
  
He dropped the burning doll and walked over to the bag, which he opened, and then he threw the doll of himself at her, albeit gently.  
  
She looked at the doll then looked away.  
  
"Take it. Make me move."  
  
She shook her head no.  
  
"Do it."  
  
"No."  
  
"Sam, make her do it."  
  
"I'm not."  
  
"Fine, I'll just burn the doll now, then."  
  
She teared up and looked away.  
  
Max noticed that the doll lay on flammable cloth and for a moment thought about lighting it on fire there to possible ignite Sophia again, but then he remembered Sam was still in the room.  
  
"I know what you're thinking, Max, so you might as well do it..." Sophia said sadly.  
  
"Sam would scold me if I did."  
  
"You don't really care what he does, Max. You just like causing pain."  
  
"That's half true."  
  
"It's all true because you enjoy hurting Sam too."  
  
"Th-that's not true!" Max shot back.  
  
"You took pleasure out of burning the Sam doll. That's proof to me."  
  
"I... I took pleasure out of that because it was revenge on you." He countered.  
  
"But I didn't mean to! I didn't know I could do that!"  
  
"Oh, not just for that."  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"For all the other things, too."  
  
"I didn't do anything to you!"  
  
Max laughed at that. "You hear that, Sam! That's the funniest thing I've heard in a while!"  
  
"Not funny, Max!" Sam yelled.  
  
"How isn't it?"  
  
"She really didn't do anything to you! All she wanted was love from her cousin and you tried to kill her several times!"  
  
Max scowled as if this were false.  
  
"Would I lie to you, Max?"  
  
"Well, I would hope not."  
  
"Then what I'm saying is true!"  
  
"But she's done something to you. Never mind me, she's done things to you!"  
  
"But she didn't mean it!"  
  
"Doesn't mean she never meant it!"  
  
Sam was about to agrue when Sophia shook her head. "Just let him think whatever he wants to, Sam. He'll never listen or believe..." she said sadly.  
  
Max glared at her a bit.  
  
"Besides if you really don't believe me, then why didn't you burn the doll of you?"  
  
"I don't know if you can even do stuff with my doll. No point in destroying it if it's useless and doesn't scream."  
  
"And yet you burned Sam's."  
  
"Because you could use it to hurt Sam."  
  
"I didn't know I could that! I honestly made the dolls as gifts for you guys before you tried to burn me!"  
  
"Well, you can still do Voodoo stuff. Nothing changes that fact."  
  
"Then kill me and get it over with!" she cried.  
  
Max looked at Sam. "See, I told you this wouldn't go so well." He grumbled sardonically.  
  
"That's because you're torturing her!"  
  
"Well, what do you expect me to do? She nearly hurt you again."  
  
"What do you mean again?"  
  
"What do you mean, what do I mean again? I mean she's hurt you before and I can't take it!"  
  
"Max, that was a nightmare you had! That didn't happen!"  
  
"No, it... She... She did hurt you for real, though...!"  
  
"By accident!"  
  
"It was not an accident!"  
  
"How can you tell?!"  
  
"There's no such thing as an accident!"  
  
"Yes there is!"  
  
"Or is there?" Max replied melodramatically.  
  
"Max, yes there is!"  
  
"So they say."  
  
"What do you mean by that?"  
  
"People make all kinds of stuff up!"  
  
"Are you saying that I do that?"  
  
"Everyone does that."  
  
Sam started to growl now; his anger with Max rising to a boiling point. "You've changed, Max!"  
  
Max flinched a bit and went quiet.  
  
"Ever since your powers were unlocked, you're been out of control and now you're even starting not to believe me!"  
  
"I still believe you, Sam..."  
  
"No you're not! You're looking for a way to kill Sophia no matter what I say!"  
  
"Who said anything about killing Sophia?"  
  
"Your actions speak for you! You wanted her to use that doll of you so she could give you another reason to kill her."  
  
"I never said anything about killing her. That would be too boring."  
  
Sophia couldn't take anymore and tied the Max doll's ears around its mouth.  
  
Max's ears swiftly tied themselves around his mouth, and he made a muffled noise before pointing at her and screaming something incoherent.  
  
"No, I'm not untying you." she replied.  
  
The lagomorph started saying something at Sam, but it was too muffled to make out.  
  
Sam couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "You did want her to do something."  
  
Max narrowed his beady eyes.  
  
Sophia then untied him.  
  
"I wasn't asking to be untied," He said, "I was pointing out that you could use the doll to make me do things."  
  
"I just couldn't stand your yelling."  
  
Max stuck his tongue out at her.  
  
"So what will you do?"  
  
"Burning the doll hits a pretty high place on my current to-do list."  
  
"Then do it."  
  
"You want me to?"  
  
"You're going to anyway like you burned Sam's doll."  
  
"Yeah, probably."  
  
"Then go ahead."  
  
"Nah."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I said nah."  
  
"But why?"  
  
"Because I don't feel like it right now."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Max shrugged.  
  
"You didn't feel like that about Sam's doll."  
  
"I don't feel anything for the doll. I just don't feel like using my powers to set it on fire. Maybe we should throw it into a pit of blades."  
  
Sophia seemed disturbed by that idea.  
  
"Jar of acid?"  
  
She didn't like that choice either.  
  
"Lock it up in a box and try to grow tiny little plants from it?"  
  
She seemed like she was about to cry.  
  
Max frowned and looked up at Sam.  
  
"She made that doll for you remember?"  
  
"Well we have to get rid of it somehow. Putting it in a box and trying to grow plants from it is the least destructive solution I can think of."  
  
"You still don't get it, Max." Sam sighed.  
  
Max shrugged. "I guess not."  
  
Sophia just shook her head. "Do whatever you want with it..."  
  
Max scowled a bit, upset that he had no good ideas.  
  
"Just get out of here and leave me alone..."  
  
"Not with that doll."  
  
"Just go away!" she started to cry and covered her head with her blanket.  
  
Max looked at Sam again.  
  
Sam wasn't happy about this but motioned to Max that they should leave.  
  
With a grumble, Max walked out of the room.  
  
Sam walked out with him. "Way to go, Max. She was your fan and cousin and you broke her."  
  
"Yeah, well, shit happens." He replied rather bluntly. "What now, Sam?"  
  
"I'm done, Max. I'm just done." the dog shook his head and walked ahead.  
  
Max watched him walk for a moment before he ran after him. "So... We're not doing anything, then."  
  
"Just shut up for once and think for yourself."  
  
Max clamped his lips shut over his sharp teeth and said nothing.  
  
Sam continued walking.  
  
Max kept following him, not having anywhere else to go.  
  
"Why, Max? Why is it when something good comes into your life, you ruin it?"  
  
"Because I don't like change?" He joked with his typical shark-toothed grin.  
  
Sam frowned at Max's answer.  
  
In response, Max wisely shut his mouth again.  
  
"Sophia looked up to you, Max, even before she found out you were cousin and look at her now. She's in a hospital bed wrapped in bandages for her burns that you caused and can't even stand the sight of you anymore."  
  
It didn't seem like that brought out any emotion in Max. He didn't appear to understand.  
  
"Let me put it this way, Max. You know that nightmare you had? YOU'RE CAUSING IT TO COME TRUE IF YOU DON'T START TREATING HER BETTER!!" Sam yelled at him.  
  
Max flinched at the sound of Sam's yell, and couldn't think of anything to say, so he simply glanced down at his feet.  
  
The dog panted a bit. "You have to start treating her better, Max. She made those dolls as gifts for us and you go and burn mine and suggested to use yours as a planter. No wonder she was hurt by that."  
  
"But they were dangerous..."  
  
"Only in her hands! And she didn't mean to hurt me!"  
  
Again, Max had no comeback.  
  
"You need to make this up to her."  
  
"How?"  
  
"That's for you to figure out."  
  
Max seemed intimidated by the thought of figuring out a solution.  
  
"You can figure it out."  
  
"With a lot of time, maybe."  
  
"I know you can."  
  
"Who do you think I am, Sam? You know I suck at apologizing."  
  
"I noticed."  
  
"I'm too impatient to think of a solution."  
  
"Then how about doing something nice?"  
  
"... Like what?"  
  
"Maybe get her something."  
  
"Like what?" He said again.  
  
"Like a stuffed animal?"  
  
Max narrowed his eyes a bit at the suggestion.  
  
"Or maybe a necklace? I'm just guessing here, Max."  
  
"I dunno what girls like any better than you, Sam."  
  
"Well we do know she likes dolls."  
  
"And we also know that she can do things with them."  
  
Sam sighed. "You have another idea?"  
  
"No, honestly, I don't have any."  
  
"Then we'll do my idea."  
  
Max shrugged.  
  
"Well come on, Max."  
  
"I'm just not sure about this, Sam."  
  
"Why?"  
  
The lagomorph shrugged again.  
  
"Then let's go and do this."  
  
"Whatever."


	23. A Moment of Peace

Sam brought him to the nearest store.  
  
Max still didn't seem very pleased with the idea of making up with Sophia.  
  
"Come on, Max. At least try."  
  
He huffed. "Fine."  
  
"The dolls are on that right wall."  
  
"You're gonna make me pick it out?"  
  
"Well yeah."  
  
"I don't know what to pick."  
  
"Well anything you think would be good, pick the opposite."  
  
Max looked at the aisle of dolls. "Um... Hm."  
  
He saw dolls of all sizes and shapes.  
  
Eventually he picked one of the cuter dolls off the shelf.  
"It's hideous. Maybe she'll like it."  
  
"I think she will." said the dog.  
  
"Fine then, this one it is."  
  
Sam paid for it and they walked back to the hospital as Sophia stared at the ceiling.  
  
Max knocked on the door to get her attention.  
  
She slowly looked over at him and said nothing.  
  
He quietly revealed the doll.  
  
"A doll? What; are you going to burn it in front of me too?"  
  
"That'd be kinda funny, wouldn't it? But nah, that's not why I have it."  
  
"Then why do you have it?"  
  
Max held it out for her to take.  
  
She slowly took the fairy doll and stared at it.  
  
"It's for you."  
  
"This is a trick..." she said flatly.  
  
"It really isn't."  
  
"You're lying."  
  
"How will you know whether I am or not if you don't give me a chance?"  
  
She looked at the doll again, deemed it safe and hugged it close.  
  
Max looked at Sam.  
  
He nudged him forward a bit.  
  
The lagomorph cautiously stepped a bit closer to Sophia.  
  
Sophia hugged him as well.  
  
For a moment, he didn't seem to know what to do, but he soon hugged her back.  
  
She snuggled into him.  
  
He stayed still, letting her do so.  
  
"I knew you couldn't be all bad." she smiled.  
  
He didn't say anything in response.  
  
She then kissed his cheek in thanks.  
  
He was somewhat confused by the gesture, but he smiled a bit nonetheless.  
  
She hugged him again. "Thank you, cousin."  
  
"Eh... It was no problem." He replied, a tad flustered.  
  
She giggled happily and let him go.  
  
Max looked at Sam again, confused that it could be so easy to be forgiven.  
  
"Some people are easy to get forgiveness from."  
  
"Some." He mumbled with a hint of bitterness in his voice.  
  
"Why did you have that tone in your voice?"  
  
"No reason." He said quickly, changing his mood and grinning.  
  
Sam shrugged it off as Sophia happily hugged her doll.  
  
Max stayed quiet as he watched.  
  
"You made her really happy, Max."  
  
He grinned again, but only because he thought that would be what someone who felt some sort of pride from something such as making someone happy would do.  
  
Soon Sophia fell asleep with her doll as Sam motioned they should go to let her rest.  
  
Max held out his hand to teleport them away.  
  
Sam gave him his hand.  
  
Max teleported them back to their place.  
  
"Feel better about Sophia, Max?"  
  
"Yeah, Sam." He replies, though he sounds rather flippant.  
  
"You made her really happy."  
  
"I know."  
  
"Looks like what you feared won't happen now."  
  
"I guess not." The lagomorph paused for a long moment. "... Sam?"  
  
"Yeah, Max?"  
  
He shook his head. "Er, never mind."  
  
"You can tell me, Max."  
  
"About, uh... About how I kissed you earlier..."  
  
Sam blushed a bit about it.  
  
Max was quiet for a couple seconds. "... Maybe we can discuss it later." He said suddenly, trying to change the subject lest they be uncomfortable.  
  
"Y-yeah."  
  
Max cleared his throat.  
  
"Why did you kiss me..?"  
  
"Well... I... I'm not sure, really... I felt like it, I guess."  
  
"You felt like it?"  
  
"It just... felt like the right thing to do, I guess..."  
  
Sam blushed again.  
  
"I'm uh, I'm sorry about that though."  
  
"I-it's alright, Max."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Really, Max."  
  
Man smiled a little.  
  
Sam smiled back.  
  
"So, uh..."  
  
"So what?"  
  
"... Uh... Yeah."  
  
"If you want to say something, say it."  
  
"No, it's... It's nothing."  
  
"Come on, Max."  
  
"It really did feel nice." Max blurted casually.  
  
"See, Max? You can do nice things." smiled the dog.  
  
"I wasn't talking about Sophia." Max added.  
  
"What were you talking about then?" he asked.  
  
"Kissing you."  
  
Sam blushed again.  
  
"You're blushing, Sam." Max grinned.  
  
"S-so?"  
  
"It's sorta cute."  
  
Sam blushed even more.  
  
"Hee hee, your face is even redder now!"  
  
"Well yeah."  
  
Max grinned again.  
  
"It's just I've never been kissed like that before."  
  
"Well, you're my first kiss altogether, so..."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Didn't know that."  
  
"Well, why would anyone willingly kiss this mouth?" He said, showing off his razor-sharp teeth.  
  
"Good point, Max."  
  
Max chuckled.  
  
"Did I say something funny?"  
  
"Kind of."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, you agreed with me. That made the joke funnier."  
  
"It wasn't a joke."  
  
"Even if it wasn't, it still made it funnier."  
  
His ears drooped a bit.  
  
"... What's wrong?"  
  
"Feelings aren't something to laugh about."  
  
"Aren't they?"  
  
"No, they're not."  
  
"Ah, well, that makes one of us."  
  
"Just when I thought you finally got it..." Sam sighed and walked out of the room.  
  
"Sam, wait!" Max chased after him.  
  
"Don't even bother, Max." he grumbled as he went to his room.  
  
"I was just goofing around!"  
  
"Like you always do!"  
  
"Exactly! If I said something wrong, don't take it seriously!"  
  
"Whatever."  
  
"Really, I did enjoy the kiss, Sam."  
  
"Yeah right."  
  
"I did, really!"  
  
"Just leave me alone, Max."  
  
"... And do what?"  
  
"I don't know and don't care!"  
  
"But I'm bored, Sam."  
  
"Don't care."  
  
"Aw, c'mon, Sam!"  
  
"Leave me alone, Max!"  
  
"But what if I don't wanna?"  
  
"Just go!"  
  
"Where?"  
  
"Wherever!"  
  
"Where's that?"  
  
"Just go, Max!"  
  
"I'm just gonna go into the other room, then."  
  
"Fine!"  
  
Max walked off.  
  
Sam sighed as he sat on his bed.  
  
It was quiet... for once.  
  
Now he could actually hear himself think.  
  
It was clear that Max still hadn't changed much.  
  
And he still thought that everything was a joke to him.  
  
Still, in some way this was a good sign. He was still, technically, the same old Max.  
  
He sighed a bit. Maybe he was too hard on Max.  
  
The lagomorph had, in a somewhat roundabout way, tried to apologize.  
  
He got up and looked for him.  
  
He was sitting in the other room, staring out the window.  
  
"Hey, Max."  
  
"Oh, hey Sam."  
  
"Sorry I got so mad."  
  
"You got mad? About what?" Same old Max, with his short-term memory...  
  
Sam slapped his forehead. "Why do I even bother?" he sighed as he walked off.  
  
"Ooh, Sam, there's a dead bird outside! Some crows are pecking at it!" He cheered from the window.  
  
"Whatever, Max."  
  
The rabbity thing kept gazing out the window.  
  
Sam sat down on a chair.  
  
"Oh. Oh, jeez, that crow's kinda gross now."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"It's ripping the dead bird apart. I mean, it's cool, but... Igh."  
  
"It's just doing what it does, Max."  
  
"No like, brutally. In fact, I'm not even sure if it's a crow anymore."  
  
Sam sighed and walked over; looking out the window.  
  
There was nothing there.  
  
"Max, there's nothing out there."  
  
"It's right there." He pointed at nothing. "Come closer. You have to squint."  
  
Sam came closer and squinted.  
  
Max quickly pecked his cheek.  
  
Sam blushed heavily.  
  
Max smiled widely.  
  
He blushed more as he looked at Max.  
  
"I was joking about the crow, by the way. I just wanted a chance to try that."  
  
"You sneaky rabbit." Sam chuckled.  
  
Max grinned again.  
  
Sam grabbed him and gave him a noogie.  
  
The lagomorph let out a playful, giggled shriek.  
  
"You silly rabbit!" he chuckled a bit.  
  
Max laughed a little.  
  
Sam hugged him.  
  
Max hugged back.  
  
"How did you know if that was going to work?"  
  
"I didn't." He admit.  
  
"Seriously?"  
  
"I didn't know if you'd buy it or not."  
  
"And I didn't know it was a trick."  
  
"So we were both uncertain, then."  
  
"Seems like it."  
  
Max smiled again.  
  
He gave him another noogie.  
  
Max giggled.  
  
Sam smiled a bit.  
  
"Love ya, Sam."  
  
"Love ya too, Max."  
  
"... So what now, Sam?"  
  
"I dunno, Max."  
  
Max tried to think.  
  
So did Sam.  
  
"Well, I've got nothing."  
  
"Same with me, Max."  
  
"Hm."  
  
The dog sighed a bit.  
  
"Maybe... Nah, I'm running on empty."  
  
"Wanna get something to eat then?"  
  
"Ooh, yeah!"  
  
"Pizza?"  
  
"That sounds great."  
  
"What do you want on it?"  
  
"Surprise me." Max said, grinning widely.  
  
"Okay." the dog smiled as he ordered the pizza.  
  
Max in the meantime tried to daydream about something.  
  
Sam grabbed a few plates for when the pizza came.  
  
"Sam?"  
  
"Yeah, Max?"  
  
"What do you think our future will be like?"  
  
"I dunno."  
  
"Do you think we'll be happy?"  
  
"I would think so."  
  
"Would think so or would hope so?"  
  
"Hope, I guess."  
  
"Hm..." Max slipped back into whatever daydream he was having.  
  
Sam waited for the pizza.  
  
Max started to doze off a bit.  
  
Soon the pizza arrived.  
  
Max woke up the instant he smelled it.  
  
"Knew that would wake you up."  
  
"You know me so well."  
  
"I should." the dog smiled as he gave him a slice of pizza.  
  
Max looked at the slice hungrily, grinning.  
  
"I had them make half with your favorite toppings."  
  
"You're the best, Sam."  
  
"Thanks, Max. You too."  
  
Max started eating.  
  
Sam started eating too.  
  
"Hey, Sam!" Max said with his mouth full.  
  
"Yeah, Max?"  
  
"You got some sauce on your tie."  
  
"Aw damn!" he cursed as he looked.  
  
Max was right.  
  
Sam licked the sauce off his tie.  
  
Max raised his brows as he watched this.  
  
"What?" he asked as he looked over at him.  
  
Max smiled. "That's one way to clean your tie."  
  
"Knowing you, you would eat the tie with the sauce." Sam chuckled.  
  
"Eh, yeah, probably." Max giggled back.  
  
Sam chuckled more.  
  
Max laughed.  
  
He grabbed another slice and ate it.  
  
As did Max.  
  
Sam grabbed some colas and gave one to Max.  
  
Max popped it open and started chugging it.  
  
Sam did the same.  
  
Max quickly finished his.  
  
"You know what happens when you chug it, Max."  
  
Max burped and giggled.  
  
Sam chuckled a bit.  
  
"Oops." Max said innocently, and then laughed.  
  
Sam laughed.  
  
Together they shared this moment of carefree peace.


	24. How Could You?

And soon they had finished their pizza.  
  
"Well, that filled me up nice."  
  
"Same here."  
  
"Actually kind of tired now, though."  
  
"Wanna head to bed?"  
  
"I guess so."  
  
Sam got up and went to the bedroom.  
  
Max followed.  
  
He changed into his pjs and got into bed.  
  
Max got into the other bunk.  
  
"Night, Max. Sweet dreams."  
  
"Night, Sam."  
  
The dog yawned before he laid down and fell asleep.  
  
Max waited a bit before he looked at his sleeping friend.  
  
Sam had his mouth opened a bit as he slept.  
  
Max carefully tried to lay next to him.  
  
The dog snorted but stayed asleep.  
  
The lagomorph curled up beside him.  
  
Sam smiled in his sleep.  
  
Still, Max couldn't sleep.  
  
Sam rolled over and hugged him in his sleep.  
  
Max's face lit up to a shade of red.  
  
Sam snuggled him more.  
  
The rabbity-thing tried hard not to make a sound.  
  
Sam snored a bit.  
  
"Sam..." Max muttered quietly.  
  
"Hmmm...?" he moaned sleepily.  
  
"I... This is nice..."  
  
"Mmm hmm...." he muttered sleepily.  
  
"... Love ya, Sam..."  
  
"Love ya too~..."  
  
Max blushed again.  
  
Sam continued to sleep peacefully.  
  
Max clung to him gently.  
  
The dog smiled in his sleep.  
  
"Don't leave me..."  
  
"Okay~..."  
  
"... Ever?"  
  
"Mmm hmm~..."  
  
Max smiled a bit. Slowly, he moved his face a bit closer to Sam's.  
  
Sam continued to sleep.  
  
Nervously, the lagomorph kissed his friend again.  
  
He sleepily kissed back.  
  
Max jolted a bit, but didn't pull back.  
  
He sleepily kept kissing.  
  
Max resumed returning the kisses.  
  
The dog smiled happily in his sleep.  
  
Max continued.  
  
Sam sleepily kissed back.  
  
"Sam..." Max whispered between kisses.  
  
"Mmm hmm...?"  
  
Max nuzzled against him.  
  
Sam smiled and purred in his sleep.  
  
Max smiled as well.  
  
Sam continued to sleep.  
  
Max slowly began to doze off beside him.  
  
The dog hugged him.  
  
Max hugged him back.  
  
Sam smiled and snored a bit.  
  
"Love ya..."  
  
"Love ya too..."  
  
Max finally fell asleep.  
  
Sam snuggled against him.  
  
The lagomorph started to dream...  
  
Sam was in it.  
  
"Sam!"  
  
The dog turned to him. "Max."  
  
Max ran over to him.  
  
The dog hugged him.  
  
Max hugged him back.  
  
He smiled and noogied him.  
  
The lagomorph giggled.  
  
"You have a cute laugh, Max."  
  
Max blushed a bit.  
  
Sam gently kissed him.  
  
Max kissed him back.  
  
He kissed him more.  
  
His face reddening a bit more, Max let him.  
  
The dog then stopped.  
  
Max pulled back with a small smile.  
  
Sam smiled back.  
  
"I love you, Sam."  
  
"I love you too, Max."  
  
"... So, now what?"  
  
"Well, what do you want to do?"  
  
"I'm not sure."  
  
"It could be anything."  
  
Max shrugged.  
  
"I just wanna be with you, Sam."  
  
"That sounds good, Max." the dog smiled.  
  
Max smiled back.  
  
Sam noogied him again.  
  
Max jumped up and noogied him right back.  
  
He laughed and tried to get him off.  
  
"You oughta try harder than that, Sam!"  
  
He laughed more and tried again.  
  
Max giggled as he let go.  
  
"You silly rabbit."  
  
"That's me~!"  
  
Sam laughed a bit.  
  
Max smiled at him again.  
  
The dog smiled back as he hugged him.  
  
"I love ya, Sam."  
  
"I love you too, Max."  
  
"Where do we go from here?"  
  
"That's up to you."  
  
"You know I'm never the one to make decisions for the both of us." Max responded light-heartedly.  
  
"I know."  
  
"So you make the decision, Sam."  
  
"I just like being around you, Max."  
  
"I can say the same about you, Sam."  
  
The dog smiled and hugged him.  
  
Max hugged him back and nuzzled against him.  
  
He smiled and nuzzled back.  
  
Max started to wake up.  
  
The real Sam was still sleeping.  
  
Max watched him sleep.  
  
The dog snored a bit.  
  
The lagomorph smiled.  
  
Sam started to wake up a bit.  
  
"Morning, Sam." Max said, not caring that he was still lying down right beside Sam.  
  
"Morning, Max..." Sam yawned and rubbed his eyes.  
  
Max didn't move.  
  
Sam's eyes were wide when he saw how close he was to Max and blushed heavily.  
  
"Hi." Max grinned.  
  
"H-hi."  
  
"You look so nervous all of the sudden, Sam."  
  
"I wasn't expecting to see you this close."  
  
Max smiled.  
  
Sam smiled back.  
  
Max nuzzled a bit closer.  
  
Sam nuzzled back.  
  
Max leaned closer.  
  
Sam leaned closer as well.  
  
Their beady noses touched.  
  
Sam smiled as he looked at Max.  
  
Max blushed a bit.  
  
So did Sam.  
  
Max shyly looked away.  
  
"Now you're shy." he chuckled.  
  
The lagomorph stuck out his tongue.  
  
"Aww, that's cute."  
  
Max blushed again.  
  
Sam gently held him close.  
  
"O-oh...?"  
  
"Something wrong?"  
  
Max shook his head. "Everything's fine..."  
  
"Alright, Max."  
  
Max stared at Sam.  
  
Sam stared back at him.  
  
Max leaned in closer again.  
  
Sam did the same.  
  
He slowly went in for a kiss.  
  
So did Sam.  
  
Their lips touched.  
  
Sam kissed him softly.  
  
Max blushed again.  
  
Sam blushed a bit too.  
  
The lagomorph kissed back.  
  
The dog continued the kiss.  
  
For the moment, nothing else mattered to Max.  
  
Sam gently held him close.  
  
Max held him back.  
  
Sam started petting his head gently.  
  
Max didn't fight him.  
  
"Doing alright, Max?" asked Sam.  
  
"Just fine..."  
  
"You sure?"  
  
Max nodded.  
  
"Okay, Max."  
  
"Kiss me again, Sam."  
  
Sam kissed him again.  
  
Max kissed back.  
  
He gently held him as he continued the kiss.  
  
Max returned the gesture.  
  
Sam smiled as it continued.  
  
Max soon broke the kiss.  
  
Sam looked at Max.  
  
Max smiled a bit.  
  
Sam smiled back at him.  
  
"I love you, Sam."  
  
"I love you too, Max."  
  
"We'll be together forever, right?"  
  
"Right, Max."  
  
Max snuggled against him.  
  
Sam smiled and gently pet his head.  
  
"So, what now, Sam?" Max asked calmly.  
  
"Dunno, since we can't be Freelance Police again. We had a lot of fun doing that."  
  
"Oh, I'm sure once everything clears up we can go back to that again."  
  
"You really think so?"  
  
Max shrugged. "Why wouldn't it?"  
  
"I dunno."  
  
"My point exactly."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Everything will be alright."  
  
"Yeah, Max." the dog smiled.  
  
Max hugged Sam.  
  
Sam hugged him back as he smiled.  
  
The lagomorph kissed his cheek.  
  
The dog smiled.  
  
As did Max.  
  
Sam then kissed his cheek.  
  
Max blushed.  
  
"Being shy now?"  
  
"So what if I am?" Max asked teasingly.  
  
"I don't mind it." smiled the dog.  
  
"Neither do I."  
  
The dog chuckled a bit.  
  
As did Max.  
  
Sam kissed him again.  
  
Max wrapped his arms around him.  
  
Sam enjoyed the feeling happily.  
  
Max kissed him back.  
  
Sam continued the kiss.  
  
Max broke it again teasingly.  
  
Sam pouted a bit.  
  
Suddenly the phone rang.  
  
Sam grumbled and answered the phone. "Hello?"  
  
"Sam! Thank God you picked up!" It was Geek.  
  
"Geek? What's wrong?"  
  
"Something's happened at the hospital!"  
  
"That's where Max's cousin Sophia and her mom are!"  
  
"It's... You... You need to get there immediately!"  
  
"Alright, me and Max are on the way!"  
  
"Hurry!" Geek said before hanging up.  
  
Sam quickly grabbed Max's arm and ran out. "Something happened as the hospital!" he told Max.  
  
"What? Who told you this?" Max asked in a hurry.  
  
"It was Geek!"  
  
"I have a bad feeling about this, Sam..."  
  
"Me too but Geek said we have to get there!"  
  
"Can we trust her?"  
  
"This is Geek we're talking about, Max!"  
  
"But where's she been? We haven't seen her in a while."  
  
"In her lab, I guess!"  
  
"If you trust her, Sam, I will too..."  
  
"Okay, we need to get there fast!"  
  
"Well, hold on then and let me teleport us there!"  
  
Sam held onto him.  
  
Max teleported them to the hospital. Nothing appeared out of order.  
  
"Geek, are you here?" Sam called out.  
  
"I don't think she's here, Sam..." Max muttered.  
  
"Huh. Then why did she want us here?"  
  
"Freeze!" They heard from behind them.  
"Here we go again..." Max grumbled.  
  
Sam slowly turned around to look behind them.  
  
There stood a team of specialists, aiming stun guns and various other guns at the duo.  
  
The dog gulped and slowly put his hands up above his head. "Geek, how could you..." he said quietly.  
  
"I had no other choice, Sam..." said Geek as she came out of the middle of the group. "I'm sorry..."  
Max simply crossed his arms and tapped his foot against the floor impatiently.  
  
Sophia poked her head out of her hospital room. "What's going on?" she asked before gasping at the sight of the cops.  
  
"So, which one of us are they after?" Max asked.  
Geek didn't reply.  
  
Sophia ran out and stood in front of Sam and Max. "Don't you guys touch them!"  
  
"Sophia, get back." Geek ordered.  
  
"No! I won't let you hurt them!" she cried as electricity crackled around her as well as ice floating around her.  
  
The specialists were put on guard and got ready to fire.  
"Wait, wait, wait. C'mon, surely we can end this in a boringly civilized way?" Max cut in.  
  
"Yeah. No need to get on edge, right?" Sam added.  
  
The specialists weren't listening.  
"Look, all of you just calm down. We're not gonna fight unless we really have to." Max added.  
  
Sophia relaxed abit as she stopped her powers.  
  
The specialists stayed on guard, but seemed less likely to abruptly start shooting.  
"We need Sophia and Max." Geek said.  
  
"Because of our powers, right?" the child said.  
  
Slowly, Geek nodded.  
  
"And if we refuse to go?"  
  
"Then we'll make you go by force."  
  
"I'll go only if you don't hurt Sam and Max." replied Sophia.  
  
"Same here." said Max. "... Eh, but add Sophia to that list."  
"If you come willingly, no one will have to get hurt." Geek told them.  
  
"Then we'll go, Geek the traitor." Sophia spat as she walked past her.  
  
Geek bowed her head at that remark.  
Max looked up at Sam.  
  
Sam knelt down to him and hugged him tightly; not wanting him to go.  
  
Max hugged him back.  
  
"Please don't go, Max..."  
  
"Don't worry," He whispered into Sam's ear. "I've got a plan."  
  
"Okay, Max." he whispered back.  
  
Max looked at Geek and the specialists.  
  
"Be careful, Max."  
  
Max turned his gaze to Sophia.  
  
Sophia reached a gentle hand to him. "We have to go to protect Sam." she said.  
  
Max slowly let go of Sam and headed to follow Sophia.  
  
"I don't like this either, cousin, but we have no choice."  
  
"I guess not."  
  
Sophia hugged him tightly; showing she was really scared.  
  
Max hugged her back.  
  
She sniffled in fear.  
  
The specialists grabbed them and started pulling them along.  
  
Sophia whimpered as she walked with them.  
  
Max went along with them, though he didn't look pleased.  
  
Sam slumped to his knees as he watched them be taken away.  
  
"I'm so sorry, Sam..." Geek said as she backed away to follow them. "They would've killed me if I refused..."  
  
"Save your stories. After everything we did for you, you go and do this! And Sophia is just a kid! You know what they'll do to them! They'll turn them into weapons or worse; kill them! Think about that when you try to sleep tonight, traitor!" Sam yelled at her.  
  
"They had me at gunpoint, Sam! What else was I supposed to do?!" She cried.  
  
"Friends don't betray friends, Geek! And I thought you were ours but I guess I was wrong to think that!" he yelled more as he stood up and started to walk away.  
  
"I had no choice!"  
  
He ignored her as he continued walking away.  
  
"Please," She shouted, though she was a bit hushed as she didn't want the specialists to hear her. "I can help you get them back. You just need to give me some time...!"  
  
He quickly turned and glared at her. "I'm not listening to anymore lies from you. I'm done." he growled and walked out.  
  
She huffed in concern, hoping she could somehow make things better again.


End file.
